Sacrifice of Shadows
by Wingleader Sora Jade
Summary: Sequel to Visions of the Heart and All Saints' Night. Serenity is the Shadow Realm's next victim, and with Malik and Yugi struck down by a curse, it's all up to Ryou. *Completed!* Reunited at last... Sequel(s) (yes, more!) will be out soon!
1. Telekinisis and Teleportation

Sacrifice of Shadows 

by WSJ 

The screen fades in and we see WSJ rolling around on the floor, laughing her guts out. In honor of the new story she has on a new outfit: black leggings, a blue t-shirt that says "VotH & SoS" across the front in white with a picture of the Millenium Ring underneith, and a black leather jacket with black boots. Her hair, instead of its usual braid, is in a pony-tail and tied with a blue scarf. 

WSJ: *wipes a tear out of her eye* Bwahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is just too good! 

Ryou: *questioningly* What? 

WSJ: *shakes her head, laughing* Go find Malik and his yami. They need to hear this too. 

Bakura and Ryou look at each other, shrug, and run off to find the Egyptians. Several minutes later they come back, Malik and Y-Malik in tow. 

Malik: *crosses his arms over his chest* Ok 'SJ, what do you want? 

WSJ: *still chuckling* I got the Sailor Moon SNES game "Another Story" the other day. (And I've been obssesivly playing it 24/7, which is why I haven't been updating). It's an RPG, and basicly, the Sailor Senshi have to face off with their clones. Each of the clones (EVIL clones, of course) is named after a Babalonian god. *breaks out into laughter again* Oh, this is just too sweet! 

Bakura: *annoyed* Just tell us already! 

WSJ: *wipes away another tear of mirth* Sailor Venus's clone is named Ishtar, and labelled as the god_dess_ of sex and love!!! *starts laughing so hard that she chokes on her own spit and Bakura has to pound her on the back* 

Bakura: *laughing almost as hard as WSJ, the two are leaning on each other for support* Why Malik! I didn't know you kept so many secrets from us! 

Ryou: *chuckling dispite himself* Really guys, we shouldn't be laughing... 

WSJ and Bakura look at each other, then at him, then at Malik and burst out laughing again. 

WSJ: This is just too much! On to the story! I don't own YGO. 

Authoress's Notes: This is, if you haven't already figured it out, the sequeal to my Ryou-angst stories _Visions of the Heart_ and _All Saints' Night_. I cover what they're about in this first chapter, so you don't technically _have_ to read VotH and ASN to understand this, but it would help a lot if you did. VotH is where Briar-Rose and Jonathon, both major characters in this story, are first introduced, and also where a lot of fore-shadowing and pre-plot for SoS takes place. ASN is a sort-of side-story, but a couple major plot-lines of SoS (such as Ryou being mind-controlled and the "elements" of the Millenium Items), are started there, and several things left hanging from VotH are explained. 

As for the romance, this is definately going to have Joey/Mai (it'll be solid, but it won't be part of he major story-line), and hints of Tea/Malik, with solid Tea/Tristan. About half of you who reviewed the last chapter of VotH wanted it to be Ryou/Serenity, and half didn't. I'm still contemplating whether to put it in or not. If I do, it won't be for at least six or seven (probably more) chapters, so relax. *bows slightly* Thank you. On to SoS. 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 1 -- Telekinisis and Teleportation 

"All right aibou, just try it again," the yami said, placing his hands gently on his other's shoulders. 

His hikari nodded, setting himself for his next attempt. "M'kay," 

Surprisingly, this scene, touching though it is, was not coming from the Moto house. Far from it actually, it came from the house of Bakura. 

It had been a little over three months since Ryou was blinded and Bakura turned into a mortal. He'd long given up trying to find a way to get back to the Ring, and concentrated instead on helping Ryou with his own problems and powers. 

"It's simple Ryou, just do your best and concentrate." Bakura said softly, his hands still on Ryou's shoulders. 

Ryou rolled his cloudy brown eyes. "Oh duh, and _that's_ why I failed the first time! I'd like to see you try this..." But he did as his yami said and concentrated. The two of them disappeared in a small puff of blue smoke and reappeared down in the kitchen. 

Unfortunatly, Shen Bakura, Ryou's father, was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the morning newspaper. Fortunately, he knew about Ryou's "talents". He jumped slightly as his son and his son's other landed next to the table, then sighed. "I'll never get used to you popping around like that..." 

"Thanks for the lift, Runt," Bakura smirked, heading for the fridge to find himself something to eat. He had a charming little limp to his step, a lingering result of the beating that Ryou had given him the month before. (See ASN) As he passed he happened to glance at the clock hanging over the doorway and froze. "^&%$#@*%!!!!!!! We're gonna be late!!!!!" 

Ryou yelped and with a flick of his hand his backpack rose off the table, easily floating close enough for him to grab it out of the air. Bakura rolled his eyes, grabbed his own bag and took Ryou by the hand, leading the blind boy toward the door. "Bye dad!" They chorused. Shen had insisted that Bakura call him dad. 

For the past three months, Bakura had been going to school with Ryou, posing as his older brother. He was one class ahead of Ryou, which put him in the same grade as Yami Yugi and Mai. He would have been in the same grade as Yami-Malik too, but he, Malik, and Isis went to a private academy across town. Although, they were thinking about transfering to Domino High... 

It also would have put him in the same grade as Seto Kaiba, but he was rather, um, tied up. Three months ago the demon Kuroi had killed him, but Ryou had managed to save his soul by putting him into Mokuba's body. Now both brothers did their best to co-exist in a yami/hikari-like set-up. 

Bakura had registered under the name of "Yami Bakura", but everyone called him Bakura since there were two kids "named" Yami in that class, himself and Yami, Yugi Moto's "older brother". 

It had been a little hard for the others to accept Bakura's sudden convert to kindness, but they had mostly gotten used to it, especially Yugi, Malik, and their yamis, because of what had happened on Halloween the month before. (Again, ASN) 

And although the "gang" knew that Bakura no longer beat his hikari and they were on better terms, only Yami and Yugi knew how deep their partnership really ran. It had had to do with a Halloween fiasco a month before... But that is a much different story. 

(WSJ: Which I just finished and is the aforementioned ASN.) 

"Bakura, slow down!" Ryou laughed as his other dragged him along the sidewalk. "I can't sence where to put my feet this fast!" 

"Well, we can't afford to slow down..." Bakura said, contemplating. He then shrugged and picked Ryou up, tossing him over his shoulder to ride piggy-back. 

Ryou squealed and clung to Bakura's neck, but he was grinning. "I could just teleport us there." he offered. 

Bakura shook his head. "Nope, sorry. You still don't have much control over your powers, and I don't fancy winding up in Antarctica. _Again_." 

Ryou pretended to pout. "It wasn't my fault!" 

"Yes it was! And besides, someone might see us. We can't afford that yet." 

Ryou and Bakura hadn't told anyone about Ryou's telekinetic powers, mostly because they still had no idea how strong he was or how much he could do. Yami, Yugi, Malik, and Ishtar knew, from that bit of Halloween terror last month, but they'd promised to keep it quiet. 

Bakura, Yugi, Yami, and Ryou did know, however, that Ryou's powers were unique to him, and not something gained from Millenium Items that the other hikaris would have. Bakura and Yami, after putting their heads together, desided that Ryou had inherrited his psycic abilities from his mother, who, they learned from Shen, had also been a telepath. 

Now that he didn't have to guide his hikari, Bakura was able to go much faster. He looked a little silly, trying to run with a limp, but he didn't really mind. At least, not until Ryou inserted a picture of Igor into his mind... "Aibou! That's not funny!" 

They arrived at Domino High a couple minutes later to find that they were not as late as they thought. Teens milled around the courtyard and Yugi, Yami, Joey, Tristan, and Tea were gathered next to the stairs leading to the school. 

Joey grinned and nudged Yugi in the side. "Look at Ushio!" the blond prompted, snickering. Yugi did and giggled dispite himself. The big bully was slowly edging away from the white-haired duo, who pretended to pay no attention to his obvious retreat. 

Just after Ryou had gone blind, Ushio had taken advantage of his weakened state and beaten the crap out of him. If it weren't for Joey and Tristan, Ushio probably would have killed him. Joey and Tristan had then taken Ryou to the hospital, and Bakura got so mad that he challenged Ushio to a fight, one-on-one. 

Bakura had come out of the fight mostly unscathed, save a nasty slash across the cheek from a knife Ushio carried (which had later faded to a vivid pink scar, a reminder of how far he would go to protect Ryou) and much shorter hair, again from the knife. However, Bakura also carried a knife, and Ushio definatly hadn't been so lucky. He was left with scars all over the place and Bakura had stabbed him hard enough in his right hand to leave it crippled. 

Ushio was now very afraid of the white-haired yami (understandably so), and hadn't come near Ryou or Bakura since. He'd also stopped bullying Yugi, mainly because he was scared to death of what Bakura _and_ Yami could do to him if they got together. 

"Hi guys!" Ryou chirped as his yami let him down off his back. He had to restrain himself from levetating to the ground, remembering just in time that Joey, Tea, and Tristan didn't know about his powers. 

"Hi," they responded. 

"So," Joey asked, winking slyly at Bakura, but addressing Ryou. "Did'ja know that the new computer came in yesterday?" 

Ryou blinked, cocking his head to one side. "New computer? I didn't know the school was getting any. And why only one?" 

Joey grinned widely. "Well, it ain't a _whole_ computer, jus' a keyboard. A braille keyboard." 

Ryou's face lit up into a grin. "Seriously? Great! I was wondering what they were planning to do about my computer classes." 

Yami glanced around and saw students beginning to wander into the school. "Let's go in," he said. "I already have two tardies this semester, and if I get another one it's a detention..." He could already see the wheels turning in Bakura's head, solving the "problem" of how to delay him, and Yami began to back away. "Oh no you don't!" 

"Oh yes I do!" Bakura said, grinning as he chased Yami into the school. The others sweatdropped slightly, and Yugi and Ryou sighed, before heading in themselves. 

~~Somewhere just a single realm away...~~ 

Briar-Rose chuckled slightly as she finally found what she was looking for; a musty scroll that had been shoved under several others in a forgotten room of what had once been the pharoah's palace. 

Careful not to damage the ancient papyrus she unrolled it, the sheer power pulsing from it sending a shiver up her spine. She didn't need to look at the title across the top of the page, proclaimed boldly in hiroglyphics, to know that it was what she'd been seeking for the past several weeks. And now, finally, here it was, in her hands. 

The curse that would be any yami or hikari's undoing, the curse that would give her the upper hand and time to steal the heart she'd centered her eyes on, the curse that would get those meddling Item-users out of her way... Permenantly. 

Grinning sadisticly to herself, Briar-Rose began to read from the scroll, feeling the magic of the curse take shape around her. This would be her revenge. 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *still laughing hysterically, dispite the fact that Malik and his yami had stormed out long ago* 

Ryou: ?^^? Now what's so funny? 

WSJ: *trying to get her breath back* Oh the irony of it all! I'm surprised someone hasn't pointed it out to me before now!!! 

Bakura: What now? 

WSJ: Seto (heehee), K-Kuroi killed (teehee) him! 

Bakura: *patiently* Yes 'SJ, he did... 

WSJ: *glares* That's not funny Bakura! *bursts out laughing* But this is! Kuroi killed Seto by pushing him out the window, right? 

Ryou: Well, technically he didn't kill Kaiba at all, since he sent his soul to the Shadow Realm, but go ahead anyway. 

WSJ: *red in the face from laughing* Several years before that, Seto killed his adoptive-father by pushing _him_ out the window! It's so ironic! I didn't even know that's how Kaiba Sr. had died until yesterday! I swear I didn't know at the time I was writing Seto's death! 

Ryou and Bakura: *exchange glances as if to say 'Yeah, she's insane...'* 

WSJ: *calming down a little* Ok, ok, I know this chapter was really short, and pretty boring, but it'll get a lot better, I promise. This was just setting the stage and giving a little back-ground info for the rest of the story. 

Chapter 2: Ryou's sitting in class, minding his own business, when suddenly a mental scream, or several mental screams, give him a rather painful migraine. He comes back to his sences in time fpr Yugi to faint and realize that the screams he heard were those of Yugi, Mokuba, Malik, and a feminine one he couldn't identify. Not good. Joey, Bakura, and Ryou skip the rest of school to try to figure out what happened and Bakura comes to his own private conclusion: the Shadow Realm wants another heart. 

God bless minna-san! 


	2. Cries of Their Hearts

WSJ: *snickering* 

Ryou: *groans* What _now_? 

WSJ: Did you know there's a card game called Bakura? It's not pronounced the same way as your name, but it's spelled the same. 

Bakura: *rolls his eyes* And you thought this was necessary information... why? 

WSJ: *shrugs* I just found it rather funny... Well, ASN is done with, and it's really short!! Only seven chapters!! And believe me, that's short, compared to what VotH was and what SoS will be... *grins* Still contemplating Ryou/Serenity. I don't own YGO. 

_(....)_ Ryou talking mentally to somebody 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 2 -- The Cries of Their Hearts 

Ryou tried to stiffle a yawn as his biology teacher droned on. So boring... He already knew most of this stuff. Two desks over he sensed Yugi's bordum as well. Grinning to himself he sent the Short One a mental picture of the teacher in a dog-suit, like the kind Duke Devlin had tried to make Joey wear. 

There was a muffled burst of laughter from Yugi's direction, and Ryou smiled innocently as the teacher called Yugi sharply to order. _(Sorry Yugi...)_ Ryou senced Yugi readying a mental reply, knowing that the white-haired boy would be able to sense it, but a sudden mental scream cut him off. 

The Blind One cursed uncharacteristicly as the scream, or screams, sent waves of pain through his mind, simply through their sheer intensity. These were the screams of someone in mortal pain. He dropped his head into his hands and for several seconds he couldn't see, hear, or sense anything past the pain of the screams. 

He came back to his own, rather disoriented, mind with the teacher calling his name. "Ryou? Ryou, are you all right? Do you need to go to the nurse's office?" 

"Hai, sensei," he said, somehow getting his feet under him and standing up. "Maybe I'd better, I have a migraine," Of course, he had no intention of going to the nurse. He meant to find Bakura or, if need be, Yami, and see what they thought of his recent experience. 

Before the teacher could appoint someone to help get him there, there was a shout from behind him. "Yugi!" Joey jumped up from his seat and caught the Holder of the Puzzle as he slipped out of his chair, completly limp. 

The teacher swallowed, and Ryou could sense the slight panic coming off of her. "Joey, would you please take Yugi and Ryou to the nurse's office?" 

"Hai," Joey bowed slightly, Yugi still in his arms, and made his way over to Ryou. The blind boy put a hand on Joey's arm to be led out of the room, although he could have easily found his way out himself. He was beginning to panic slightly over those screams he'd "heard", as well as Yugi's present condition. The feeling of Joey's jacket under his fingers helped reassure him emmencly. 

They made their way to the door, and Ryou pulled it open with his free hand. "Ryou," Joey said suddenly, his brow furrowing. "You're tremblin' like you jus' got senteced to the Shadow Realm or somethin'. You sure it's just a migraine?" 

At that moment, Ryou wished that it was _anyone_ else beside him at the moment except Joey. Preferably someone who knew of his powers. Even Malik would have been better. "No," he said, unable to lie to his friend. 

Joey seemed to accept this answer for the moment, but he couldn't help the way that his mouth turned downward at the corners in worry. "Do you 'ave any idea why Yug's suddenly a rag doll?" 

Ryou paused a moment, and then sighed. "Hai," 

Before Joey could ask anything else, the sound of running feet down the corridor behind them met their ears. Ryou blinked. "Bakura?" 

"'Ey," Joey asked, even more puzzled. "How'd you know-" 

Bakura skidded to a stop in front of them, took one look at Yugi's limp form and the look on Ryou's face, and moaned. "This is not good..." 

_~~Ten minutes earlier...~~_

Bakura idly doodled on his paper, wishing that this stupid French class would be over. Wasn't knowing Japanese, English, _and_ Egyptian enough languages for two life-times? Apparently not... 

Beside him he heard Yami mutter something under his breath in Egyptian, and the tomb robber snickered quietly. Since the two of them had all their classes together, and were placed next to each other in almost every one*, they'd taken to muttering any snide comments in their birth-language, so that only the other would understand. 

~()~ 

* This is because the really stupid teachers** would place their pupals in their seats by alphabetical order. Some would go by last name, almost always putting Yami in the seat behind Bakura. Others would go by first name (or in Bakura's case, "first" name), which obviously seated them side-by-side. 

** Read: all 

~()~ 

Suddenly Yami's eyes widened, and he went slightly pale. "Bakura," he hissed. "Someone's casting a spell! They're trying to force me back into the Puzzle," the ex-pharoah was speaking hoarsly in Egyptian, so Bakura answered in like. 

"Do you know who?" 

A couple of other students were giving them weird looks, especially since this was a French class, but the two spirits ignored them. 

"No, but Bakura, it _hurts_! I've got to get out of here," Yami said. 

For a moment Bakura sat there stunned, amazed that Yami had actually called him by name. Then he jumped to his feet. "Sensei, I think Yami's about to be sick!" There was a rather embarrassed silence, and then Bakura realized he had spoken in Egyptian still. He flushed lightly and repeated his exclamation in standard Japanese. 

The teacher looked startled. Then she saw Yami, pale, sweaty, and panting, and waved them hurridly out of the room. 

Bakura pulled Yami to his feet and looped the pharoah's arm around his shoulders, half-carrying and half-dragging him out of the room. As soon as the door shut behind them, the Pharoah looked up at the tomb robber, and Bakura saw something that he hoped to never see again. 

There was fear in Yami's eyes. 

"D-Don't let her win!" Yami pleaded, collapsing to the ground and coughing. Then he slowly began to dissolve, as he gave in to the spell and retreated into his soulroom. As he did, he let out a pitious keening cry that almost didn't sound human. It shook Bakura down to the very core, and he shivered dispite himself. 

At that particular moment, every person in that building, be it student or facuty, felt a shiver go up their spine for unexplainable reasons. It was also at that moment that Ryou was doubled over in pain, for he was hearing that same keening cry, only intensly magnified and joined by several other voices. 

Bakura stood dumbly outside the classroom for a moment, staring down at where Yami had been. Then his brain caught up with him, and his eyes widened. "Yugi! Ryou!" He took off down the hall toward their biology class, his booted feet slipping slightly on the tiled floor. As he barreled around the last corner, he almost slid into the lockers on the opposite wall before he could regain control of his momentum. 

Ahead of him he saw Ryou and Joey, their backs to him. At the sound of him approaching, the two turned, reveiling Yugi laying in Joey's arms, knocked out and way too pale. Bakura skidded to a halt and moaned slightly. "This is not good..." 

"Wha' do ya' mean?" Joey demanded. "Of course it's not good! Come on, we gotta get 'im to the nurse," 

Slowly Bakura shook his head. "It would do no good. She would find nothing wrong. This is not a mortal disease, but one of the soul. Look," 

Joey looked where he was pointing and gasped. The Puzzle was glowing, but instead of casting its normal golden sheen, it had a sickening greenish cast to it. 

Without warning the Ring appeared through Ryou's shirt, casting off the same greenish light. "Aibou?" Bakura asked, horrified. 

Ryou's face was contorted slightly in pain, and one hand was pressed flat to his chest, right over his heart. "I'm fine," he wheezed. "It'll pass," And his prediction was true. Within moments the glow around the Ring faded, although the light from the Puzzle stayed. 

"What was it?" Joey asked, horrified. 

"A spell," Bakura answered, letting Ryou lean supportivly against him. "Could you sense what it was Ryou?" 

Ryou nodded, still breathing heavily. "Hai. It was centered on all Millenium Items, but strongest on the ones that hold yamis. It was trying to lock me in a soulroom that is no longer there. I think I managed to shunt away the worst of it from the Eye and Ring, and I did my best for the Puzzle, but..." He looked saddly at Yugi and shook his head. "I doubt I suceeded," 

Joey blinked, a couple question marks dancing over his head. "Wha'? A spell? You can sense it? And why protect Pegasus?" 

Ryou winced and dropped his head, and Bakura smacked himself on the forehead. "You're forgetting, Joseph," Bakura said through clenched teeth. "That the Eye was stolen from Pegasus," 

Joey blinked at the two of them, and then the connection clicked and he gasped, almost dropping Yugi in the process. "_You_-" 

"Him," Ryou corrected with a wry chuckle, pointing at his other. "_I_ had nothing to do with it," 

Bakura shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Enough about that aibou, now what was the spell designed to do? Who cast it?" 

Ryou opened his mouth to answer, and then his ears pricked up. "The bell's going to ring in about three minutes. Maybe we should continue this discussion else-where," The other two quickly agreed, and they left the school, heading for Joey's house, which was closest. His dad was away presently, which was lucky, but they agreed that as soon as Yugi seemed stable enough to move, they'd have to relocate to the Bakura house. 

"I think," Ryou said slowly, once Yugi was settled on the couch and the three of them were seated in chairs opposite it, "That the spell was meant to lock all yamis _and_ their hikaris into their soulrooms, and impare the powers of all the other Items," 

"So you're saying," Joey said. "That even if Yug' wasn't locked in his own mind, he wouldn't be able to use the Puzzle?" 

Ryou nodded. "I can't get the Ring to respond to me at all, and-" Suddenly he gasped and nearly fell out of the chair. "By Ra, we're all so _stupid_! What about Malik?" 

Almost as if on cue (not really), the phone rang, causing them all to jump. After a moment of staring at each other and collecting their nerves, Joey picked it up. "'Ello, Wheeler residence, Joey speaking," He paused, and his eyes widened. "What? She what!? I'll be right there!" He slammed the phone back into the craddle and looked wide-eyed at the other two. "That was Serenity's school. She just collapsed, and they don't know why. I'm gonna have to go get her. Why don't you guys take Yugi to your house, and I'll find out what's wrong with Serenity and meet you there afterwards," He started to go, but Ryou grabbed his arm. 

"Don't take Serenity to the hospital, or even to the doctors'," the Blind One said, a funny look on his face. "Bring her strait to our house. Onegai Joey, just listen to me!" 

Joey blinked and gave Ryou a long look. Then he nodded slowly. "Okay Ryou, see ya' there," With that he was out the door. 

Bakura stood up and hoisted Yugi into his arms, then turned to Ryou, who was still sitting and "staring" at the door. "Hikari?" 

"I think," Ryou said slowly. "That Serenity may be in a lot of trouble..." 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *bouncing around on a gingerbread-and-iced-tea-induced sugar-high* Yay Ryou! You rock! 

Ryou & Bakura: *sweatdrop* 

WSJ: *falls over giggling, acting rather like she's drunk* Hurrah for computer people! Internet go bye-bye, now internet come back! *weaves back and forth for a moment before falling over completly* Gingerbread goooood... 

Ryou: *double sweatdrop* Don't mind her... She's just, well, rather insane at the moment... The over-sweetened iced tea didn't help matters either... 

Bakura: *sighs and rubs his temples* Reviews please! They are the only things that can restore sanity!!! 

Chapter 3: Joey, Bakura, and Ryou try to get things sorted out as best they can. Joey heads for the Game Shop to retreive the Tauk from Yugi's desk, Bakura heads for the Ishtars to see what's become of Malik, and Ryou stays with Yugi and Serenity. While alone, Ryou tries something that Bakura wouldn't have liked; he's going to try to get in touch with Shaadi mentally, to ask about the state of the Scales and Ankh. 

God bless minna-san! 


	3. Ring, Rod, Puzzle, Tauk, Eye, Scales, An...

WSJ: Sheesh, talk about a long time between updates... *rubs the back of her head sheepishly* Gomenasai... Let's see... Oh yes, PCHANGE is now an official crossover with Ranma 1/2, so if any of you are Ranma fans you might want to go check it out. It's also straying away from the humor catagory, and I've changed it to romance/drama. It's an official soap opera now, although it is still really humerous. I mean, how can it _not_ be, especially when Ranma's involved? *sweatdrops* It just further proves to me that I suck at writing humor... 

Ryou: *sighs* Get on with things 'SJ... 

WSJ: Ah yes, right. Expect updates to be coming slower, because I'm devoting most of my time to this absolutly _gigantic_ one-shot song-fic called _The Child Who Suffers_. It's already 60KB, and only about a third of the way done!!!! ).( I'm gonna die before it gets finished!!! 

Bakura: *coughs politly* WSJ, if you do not get on to the story, I'm going to have to bring out Bessie... (Bessie is his "pet" flame-thrower) 

WSJ: Okay, okay. Just one more note. This is _all_ Fiore's fault!!!! (For info about Fiore and my other "new" muses, see my bio) 

Disclaimer: YGO belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. *blinks slowly* Heeeeey... I wonder if he's related to the great Rumiko Takahashi, creator of Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha, among other animes... *wanders off to ponder this* 

Ah hah, one last note! *sees Bakura glaring* I promise! I've desided what to do about the Ryou/Serenity. Personally, I love that couple, but I don't want those of you who don't to run away. So here's what I'm gonna do. This story will not be Ryou/Serenity, but once I'm done with it, I'll rewrite the last several chapters so they're filled with Ryou/Serenity goodness, and post it as an alternate ending. Okay? So you'll all be happy, and so will I! ^_^ Writing sap is seriously the best part... 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 3 -- Ring, Rod, Puzzle, Tauk, Eye, Scales, Ankh 

Bakura got to his feet as there was a knock on the door, and opened it to reveil Joey on the other side. Serenity was balanced in his arms, and Bakura quickly stepped aside to let him in. 

Joey glanced around the entry hall, and then peeked into the livingroom. "Where's Ryou and Yugi?" he asked as Bakura led him toward the stairs. 

"Upstairs." Bakura answered. "We've got Yugi tucked into Ryou's bed, and we've got my bedroom all made up for Serenity." 

"Do ya' know what's wrong with her?" 

"Ryou's pretty sure he does. I've got my suspicions too. I'll let Ryou tell you about that." Bakura waited by the door as Joey tucked his little sister into the bed, shuddering at how pale she looked compaired to the white sheets. The two of them then went into Ryou's room, where the white-haired telepath was sitting with his back to the door. 

Ryou of course senced when they came in, and turned to greet them, a solemn look on his face. It sent a shiver down Joey's spine. "'Ey, how do ya' keep doin' that Ryou? Turning around before we even say anything?" 

Ryou blinked. "Oh, that's right! You don't know yet, do you? Just Yugi and Malik." 

"Know what?" 

"Ryou's a telepath," Bakura said as he guided the blond to a chair next to Yugi's bed. "A psycic, if you will. He can sence it when we come in. And that's how he was able to track the spell on the Millenium Items." 

"Oooh..." Joey said, blinking. "So you can tell what's wrong with Serenity? What is it?!" 

Ryou took a deep breath, then paused and bit his lip. "You understand about the Locking Rituals, right? About the Shadow Realm needing a pure heart once every two-thousand years?" 

"Yeah, but I don't see what that's got to do with-" Joey stopped, and his eyes widened. "_No_," 

Bakura nodded sadly. "Hai. When we escaped three months ago, the Rituals weren't completed, and they still need a pure heart." 

"And they chose Serenity's," 

The two white-haired teens nodded. 

"Is there anything we can do?" 

Ryou frowned. "I already tried the spell that Ishtar used to get me and Bakura out, using my psycic energy in place of shadow-magic, but they must have it blocked somehow. It didn't work. All I can think of is to go to the Shadow Realm ourselves and get her out," 

Joey jumped to his feet. "Let's go then!" 

"Hold it Joey, it's not that easy! None of the Items are working, remember? I could probably get us to the Shadow Realm, but I don't know if I'd have the energy to get us back out again. And besides, you're not going!" 

"What do you mean, 'not going'? She's _my_ sister!" 

"Joey! Our bodies would by soulless while we're in the Shadow Realm! I don't fancy Dad wandering in, figuring we're all dead, and freaking out! We need someone to stay," 

"Call Tea and Tristan! Or the Kaibas! Or Malik and Isis! You can't stop me from going along Ryou!" 

Both of them were on their feet now, nose-to-nose. Bakura pushed in between them, clearly annoyed. "Ryou! Joey! That's _enough_! You're both acting like children! We're not leaving this exact instant, we have other things to do!" 

"Other things to do?!" Joey rounded on the ex-yami, his fists clenched. "More important then my sister?!" 

Bakura regarded him calmly. "No, not more important. But more pressing. We need to find out about the other Items, especially the Rod. Chances are that Malik and Ishtar are in the same state as Yami and Yugi. And something you said a moment ago reminded me of something else," He turned to his hikari. "Ryou, you said that the curse was focused on the yamis. If Briar-Rose set it for three, and you and I were no longer connected, where did it go? The Kaibas?" 

Ryou's eyes widened, and he blanked out for a second as he tried to make mental contact with either of the Kaibas. He failed, and sighed deeply. "The Kaibas. I can't feel either of them." 

"Right, I suspected that might be it. While they aren't _technically_ a yami/hikari pair, they are really similar. Okay," Bakura quickly took charge. "I'll go to the Ishtar's to see about Malik and the Rod, then I'll swing by Kaiba Corp and pick up Kaiba to bring him back here. It might be best if everyone cursed or involved with the curse are in the same general vincancy. No use spreading the evil all over the city." 

Bakura walked over to Ryou's desk and pulled open a drawer, grabbing the Millenium Eye. Joey had been expecting it, but it still surprised him. The Eye was casting the same sickening green glow as the Ring and Puzzle, though not as strongly. "I have the Eye here, so all that's left unaccounted (after I go to the Ishtars) would be the Tauk, Ankh, and Scales. We can't do much about that idiot Shaadi, he comes and goes as he pleases, but," Bakura looked over at Joey. "Would you be willing to go to the Game Shop and get the Tauk? I don't know where Yugi keeps it," 

Joey looked hesitant. 

"I'll take care of Serenity," Ryou assured him quietly. 

Finally Joey nodded. "I know ya' will. All right then, let's go. I'll get Tristan and Tea on their way home from school too. If all _three_ of us are really going to the Shadow Realm," he cast a significant look at Ryou, although it was perfectly useless, "Then they can watch out for us all." 

Bakura and Ryou both nodded, and Joey grinned in satisfaction. "Great, let's go," Once they both had departed, Ryou sat silent in the empty (figurativly) house. There was an unpleasent buzz in his ears, which he attributed to the curses. They were glaringly bright in his mental eye, one right beside him, Yugi, and the other in the next room, Serenity. He sighed and rubbed at his forehead. 

The Ankh and Scales... They had no way of knowing if Shaadi was all right. Or... Did they? Ryou settled back into the chair and closed his eyes, mostly from force of habit. He stretched out his sences, seeking to make contact with the Guardian. 

~~~~~

"Tea! Tristan!" 

The two teens turned as Joey ran up to them, waving his arms over his head. "Nani?" Tristan asked, spying the Millenium Tauk dangling from one of the blond's hands. 

"We've got a situation here," Joey panted, skidding to a stop in front of them. "The Shadow Realm wants Serenity's heart!" 

Tea gasped. "Like what happened to Ryou?" 

"Exactly," Joey said, his face bunched in a frown. "Ryou and Bakura and I 'ave gotta go to the Shadow Realm to get her out, but we need you two to watch our bodies while our souls're gone," 

Tea and Tristan exchanged glances. "I have no idea what you just said Joey," Tea said. "But lead on," 

~~~~~

Bakura could tell that his suspicions were right from the first instant he stepped onto the Ishtar's property. The door swung open and Isis came bolting out to meet him. She was trying to keep herself composed, but it was easy to see the tears in her eyes. "Oh Bakura, thank Ra you're here! Something's happened to Malik!" 

"I know," Bakura said gently. "The same thing happened to Yugi. We're all pretty much gathering at mine and Ryou's house, so we can figure out what to do. I'm here to pick up Malik, and you if you want to come along," 

"Of course I do!" Isis nearly yelled at him. She took a deep, shaking breath and attempted to calm herself down. "Of course I do. Do you know what it is?" 

Bakura debated whether or not to lie to her, and desided he'd might as well tell her the truth, since she'd find out soon enough anyway. "It's a curse. The Shadow Realm, probably led by Briar-Rose again, want another pure heart. They've chosen Serenity, you know, Joey's sister? Well, anyway, to stop us from interfering again, someone put a curse on the Millenium Items. As far as we can tell, it confines all yamis _and_ their hikaris to their soulrooms, rendering their bodies soulless, and neutralizes the powers of the rest of them. I doubt Malik's hurt, but he'll have a doozy of a headache once he wakes up." 

Isis sighed in relief. "Good, okay, let me go get him, and then we'll be off." 

"You might as well go strait to the house," Bakura said. "I've got another stop to make before I go back there," 

Isis nodded. "All right then. And, Bakura?" 

"Hai?" 

"You're _sure_ he'll be all right?" 

Bakura paused. "As sure as Ryou can be," 

Isis looked puzzled, but let the comment pass. 

~~~~~

_(Guardian Shaadi?)_

Shaadi jumped and nearly dropped the Scales and the Ankh, which he clutched possesivly in his hands. "Who's there?!" 

_(No need to shout, I can hear you just fine. We have never met, but I am a friend of Yugi Moto's. My name is Ryou Bakura. You sold the Millenium Ring to my father, and I hold it now.)_

Shaadi blinked. "I did not think the Ring had the powers of telepathy," he said cautiously. 

There was the equivilant of a mental chuckle from Ryou. _(It does not, those are powers of my own. But this is no time for dicussing that Guardian. We are in grave times. What of the Ankh and Scales?)_

Shaadi's eyes widened slightly. "They will not work for me!" 

_(I thought as much. They have been placed under a curse. It would take too long to explain, Guardian, but we are working as hard as we can to remove it.)_

"We?" 

_(Myself and the Spirit of the Ring, as well as several friends of ours. No need to worry Guardian, we shall save this world... Again...)_

The voice faded, leaving Shaadi to puzzle over Ryou's cryptic words. 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *grins* I don't know hat else to say about this... 

Chapter 4: Ryou and Bakura try to talk Joey out of coming to the Shadow Realm, but aren't successful. Not even when they remind him of the dangers. Gee, I wish I had an older brother like that... 

God bless minna-san! 


	4. My Sister's Keeper

WSJ: *pacing around her room like a caged tiger* 

Ryou: *sweatdrops* What now? 

WSJ: *growls* _The Child Who Suffers_ is 85KB and counting!!! This is harder then I thought... I'm going to have to do a whole bunch of research on the adoption process, court trials for child abuse cases, ect. I could just skip over the court scene, but I dun' wanna! I have a really cute peice of fluff in the works to go in that scene!!! *sighs* I both love and hate working on that peice. I want to print it out and have it framed, and at the same time I want to delete it out of pure aggrivation!!! It is, it is my precioussss... *blinks* Oi vey... 

Bakura: *munching on a stale candy cane* So, if it's so much work, what are you doing here? Why not write it and get it over with? 

WSJ: *rolls her eyes* It's not that easy. Like I said, I have research to do. *laughs suddenly* Who would have thought! I'm actually updating SoS to releive stress! Usually, SoS is _causing_ me the stress! *shakes her head in amusment* I say it again, oi vey... 

Disclaimer: No own. Cry cry weep. 

WSJ: Hey, has anyone out there ever heard of Dollz Mania? It's this really nifty site where you can create your own little dolls... I'm addicted. *grins* So far I've done Isis, Seto, Tea, two of Mai, female Malik, female Bakura and female Ryou. *sweatdrops* Ryou looks hot, even in girl-form... 

Ryou: 0.o *backs away slowly* 

WSJ: ^-^ Anyway minna-san, here's chapter 4! 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 4 -- My Sister's Keeper 

Two hours later, Isis, Bakura, Ryou, Joey, Tristan, and Tea were sitting around the kitchen table in the Bakura house. Yugi, Serenity, Malik, and Kaiba had each been put into a bed upstairs. Isis was forcing the group to eat, although none of them much felt like it. 

"So... You're a psycic, Ryou?" Tristan asked, his eyes wide. 

Ryou nodded. "Hai, a telepath," He blinked, and turned suddenly to Bakura. "I spoke to Shaadi. He is fine, but the Ankh and Scale won't work for him, just like the rest of them won't work for us," 

There was a breif flash of anger across Bakura's face. "You spoke to Shaadi? Mentally?! How could you exhert yourself like that! You _know_ we need your gifts to take you and I to the Shadow Realm and back! You wasted energy needlessly!" 

"I did not!" Ryou jumped to his feet, his white aura springing up around him. "We needed to know what had happened to the Ankh and Scale. Now we know. I am fine! You and I will be able to get to the Shadow Realm, so stop worrying over me Bakura!" 

Before anyone could move or react, Bakura had raised his hand and slapped Ryou across the face, his eyes shining in surpressed rage. "It's my sharding _job_ to worry over you! I'm the one who has to make sure you don't get hurt! That you don't waste too much energy by unnecissarily using your powers! I won't lose you Ryou, not again!" 

Ryou slowly raised his hand to his cheek, which was quickly becoming red. His eyes were wide in disbelief. "You-you hit me," 

Bakura took a deep breath to compose himself. He straitened his shoulders, crossed his arms across his chest, and scowled. "I had to, you were being an idiot," 

To the others' surprise, Ryou just rolled his eyes and sat back down, Bakura grudgingly following suit. They sat in silence for a few moments, eating the cold ham and cheese that Bakura had dug out of the fridge for them. 

Finally, Joey couldn't stand it any longer. He stood up and slammed his hands palms-down onto the table, his chair skittering backward. "You keep saying 'Ryou and I', 'Bakura and I'! I'm going too!" 

Ryou frowned. "We went over this Joey, you are _not_ going to the Shadow Realm," 

_"I'm going!"_ the blond practically yelled, causing everyone except Ryou to jump. "My little sister is going to have her heart carved out by some evil preistess, and if going to the Shadow Realm is the only way to save her then you can't stop me!" 

Everyone else had sort-of unconciously scooted back, leaving Ryou and Joey the center of attention. Ryou was standing calmly, regarding his friend with his head cocked slightly and a gentle expression on his face. Joey stood opposite him, his fists clenched at his sides. The blond was breathing heavily, and his shoulders were shaking a bit. 

"No," Ryou said softly. "I can't stop you. But I can try. Joey, you don't know what the Shadow Realm's like! Without Millenium Items or yamis for protection, mortals are nearly helpless, and will die in a matter of hours. Unfortunatly for us at the moment, none of the Items are working! I can use my powers to sheild us, but only for a very short time!" 

Joey's frown deepened. "I know that Ryou. But I still 'ave ta' go! Serenity's counting on me! What kind of big brother would I be if I left her there to die?" 

Ryou's eyes drifted closed, and a breif look of regret crawled across his face. "All right Joey," he said finally. "You can come with us," 

Bakura took a step forward, his expression feirce. "Now wait just a second Ryou! Who said you could-" 

"I did," was the Blind One's firm reply. Bakura scowled, but accepted his aibou's show of authority. 

"Right. So now what do we do?" 

Ryou extended his hands out to either side, and his aura appeared around him again. He began to float a little ways in the air. "Get ready." There was a breif flash of light, followed by the sound of three more soulless bodies hitting the tile floor. 

~~~~~

He was trapped. Trapped in his own soulroom. He couldn't get out. And it was getting colder. Weakly he pounded against the door. "Yami," he whispered feebly. "Yami, Ryou, anyone..." 

()()()()() 

WSJ: ^-^ That's all for now! My grandparents'll be here in a few minutes, so I've gotta get this posted, and fast! *chuckles* Most of this is the product of overly-sweetened iced-tea and about four sticks of cinnemon gum. ^_~ All hail sugar! 

Chapter 5: Bakura, Ryou, and Joey arrive in the Shadow Realm, and poor Ryou immediatly feels the strain of trying to keep all of them sheilded. Meanwhile, Tea notices something strange and rather worrysom about Yugi's unconcious body. It's... Shifting? 

God bless minna-san! 


	5. The Strain of Darkness

WSJ: *looking through the January 2003 issue of _YM_ and drooling* Oh my kami-sama... They're so hot... 

Bakura: O.O;; Call in the newspapers! She actually has a crush on someone who ISN'T an anime character! Who is it? *looks over her shoulder, then stands back, scowling* Ah, I should have known... 

Ryou: What? Who is it? 

Bakura: *scowls more* Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom. 

WSJ: *eyes glazed over* Orlando Bloom... *has a sickening grin on her face* 

Bakura: *rolls his eyes* Bah... Anyway, she finally finished and posted that monster fic, _The Child Who Suffers_. It's 100KB even. So now she'll stop ranting about it, thank Ra! *grimaces* On to chapter 5! 

WSJ: *drool* Orlando... 

Ryou: -.-;; Well, at least she isn't drooling over me... She doesn't own YGO. 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 5 -- The Strain of Darkness 

As soon as the three would-be heros arrived in the Shadow Realm, Ryou had to bite down on a cry of pain. He was already beginning to feel his powers drain, as he sheilded himself, Bakura, and Joey from the ill effects of the Shadow Realm. "What's it look like?" he managed to hiss from between clenched teeth. Thankfully neither of his companions seemed to notice his discomfort. 

Ryou was casting enough glow for them to see a few feet on all sides, so Joey and Bakura did so. "A long dark corridor," Bakura said dryly. "As usual." 

"Eh," said Joey, over near the left wall. "What're these markings? C'mere Ryou, lemme use that aura of yours." 

Ryou raised an eyebrow as he stepped closer to Joey. Bakura smiled wryly. "You're glowing aibou." Ryou cocked his head slightly. He wasn't going to say anything, but the two of them were glowing too. Sort of. That's how Ryou knew which direction to turn when someone spoke to him. 

His mind was mostly one dark void, even more so now that they were in the Shadow Realm. But if a person was near enough, Ryou was able to sence them in the form of a vaguely human-shaped aura. The color and brightness depended on the person. Joey was a sunny orange-yellow, a little brighter then average, while Bakura was a deep blue, a little less-bright then average. 

As Bakura and Joey exclaimed over the strange markings on the wall, Ryou let his sences stretch out. He could sense several presences, most of them non-threatening lost souls, and none of them very near. He thought he caught, just for a second on the edge of his perseption, a flash of two vaguely famliar auras, one silver and one sky blue. But it was only for a second, before Bakura calling his name brought him back to the here and now. "Ryou!" 

Ryou snapped his head up and blinked. "Nani?" 

"Gimme your hand and I'll show you where the markings are. They're carved into the wall, so you should be able to feel them. Joey can't make heads or tails of them. They look remotly familiar to me, but I can't think from where. Maybe you'll remember." 

Ryou shrugged and held out his left arm. "It's worth a shot." 

Bakura and Joey both nodded, and Bakura grasped his hikari gently by the wrist. Then he froze, staring down at Ryou's arm. Ryou, especially since Bakura was in physical contact with him at the moment, easily picked up his emotions. "What?" 

"Your arm... There's scars..." 

Memory kicked them both in the head. 

A knife slashing across his pale skin, right after the blow to the temple that knocked him blind... 

"Yugi's doodles," Ryou said, blinking. "You carved them into my skin. I'd forgotten all about that until now." 

Bakura frowned. "I know. But I have a question mou hitori no ore. How'd they heal? If I remember correctly, Ishtar was positive you'd die of blood loss. Then you got trapped in the Shadow Realm, I went after you, and we promptly forgot all about it." 

Joey scratched his head. "We're talkin' the Locking Rituals again here, aren't we?" 

Ryou nodded. "Hai. I just can't seem to remember..." 

"'Ey!" Joey said suddenly. "The scars on yer arm are the same as the markings on the walls! That rose especially is really big!" 

Bakura stared at the blond, and then looked back and forth from Ryou's arm to the wall. "He's right! But... How?" 

Suddenly Ryou's eyes widened in horror, staring blankly at nothing. He let out a scream and collapsed against Bakura, who quickly and easily caught him, hugging Ryou protectivly against his chest. "Aibou, what is it?!" 

"Something's coming," Ryou said softly, a couple tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. "Even its aura... It's so powerful! Bakura, it's pitch black, we have to get out of here!" His mind was in chaos. The aura he felt was huge, and very, very black. It almost seemed to suck up all light, licking at the edges of Joey's yellow and Bakura's blue, and even Ryou's own pure white. 

Joey was standing a couple steps away from the two white-haired partners, staring into the black mist that drifted beyond where the light of Ryou's aura reached. There was definatly something out there. "Can ya' tell what it is Ryou? Other then it's powerful?" 

Ryou nodded, leaning weakly against the wall while Bakura moved protectivly in front of him. "It's a Man-Eater Bug." 

~~~~~

Tea sighed, pacing again across the livingroom to stare out the window. It was beginning to get dark, and Ryou's dad would probably be home soon. Tea, Isis, and Tristan had agreed to tell him what had happened, since it probably wouldn't freak him out too bad. He was used to things like this. Mr Moto however... 

Earlier Tea had called around to all their parents and told them that they were all spending the night at Ryou's house. She just hadn't specified _why_. She hadn't even attempted to explain things to Yugi's Granpa. She and Tristan had agreed that if Yugi wanted him to know, then Yugi could tell him when this was all over. 

The three souled people in the house refused to think about the fact that it might never be over, or that when it was Yugi might not be capable of telling his Grandfather anything. 

"Stop pacing!" Tristan snapped from the couch. "You're making me nervous!" 

"Gomenasai," Tea sighed, turning away from the window. "I can't help it!" 

Isis came down the stairs just then, her face grave. Tea couldn't help but notice that she was wearing the Tauk again. "How are they?" 

The whole upstairs floor was, as grusome as it sounded, now devoted to the storage and care of soulless bodies. Bakura and Ryou were in Ryou's dad's room, Yugi (and Yami, of course) were in Ryou's. Serenity and Joey were together in Bakura's room, since they'd figured the two Wheelers would want it that way. Malik (and Ishtar) were on blankets on the floor of Ryou's room, so that both cursed Item Holders would be in the same room. Kaiba was on blankets in the bathroom, for lack of a better place to put them. 

Isis shook her head and rubber her temples. "I can't tell. This sort of thing isn't my forte! They look all right to me, but that could mean they're dying," she held up a hand before Tea or Tristan could say anything. "_But_ they are _all_ still very much alive. All of them breathing, all their hearts beating." she frowned. "Although Serenity's is a little shallower then I'd like." 

Tea sighed in releif. "I'll go watch them for a bit Isis." The Egyption nodded, and Tea mounted the stairs. She paused at the only door on the left (besides a closet) and peeked in on Ryou and Bakura. Ryou had a rather pained expression on his face, and Bakura had an arm slung protectivly over his aibou. For an instant Tea considered finding a camera, but eventually desided against it. 

The first door on the right side of the hall led to Bakura's room, where Serenity and Joey lay. Serenity was in the bed, her breath shallow and her body limp. Joey was on the floor on a spare matress, and, dispite even his body's soulless state, a soft snore erupted from him every now and then. 

The next door led into the bathroom, where Kaiba (Mokuba's body) lay on top of several layers of blankets. He was pale and unmoving (and thankfully un-snoring), and Tea bit her lip before moving on. 

The final door on the right led into Ryou's room. Tea always had liked his room, the few times she'd been in it. A portrait of the Change of Heart hung on one wall, and a painting of a pretty blond woman (Ryou's mother, although Tea didn't know that) hung on another. 

But as she entered his room this time, Tea took no notice of the decor. Malik lay unmoving on another spare matress, his face pale and sweaty under his tan. The Rod was clutched protectivly against his chest, so hard that his knuckles were turning white. On the bed was Yugi, paler even then Kaiba or Serenity. 

Tea stopped short at the door and stared in shock, her eyes fixxed on Yugi. The Eye of Horus was glowing on his forehead, and for an instant Tea thought she was seeing things. For a moment, it was Yami lying on the bed. But just an instant, and then it was Yugi. Tea stood stock-still, to see if it would happen again, and it did. Yami, then Yugi, then, for an instant, Yami again. 

Tea swallowed hard, and gingerly made her way over to the bed. Not knowing what would happen, Tea hesitantly reached out to lay a hand on Yugi's arm. She yelped and jumped backward. Even through his shirt, he was freezing cold! She swallowed again,a nd moved this time for the Puzzle. Maybe if she took it off... 

"D**n!!!" Tea cursed uncharacteristicly as her fingers came in contact witht eh gold artifact. She jerked them back, and stared at them as they began to blister. Instinctivly she popped them in her mouth to soothe the burn. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Yugi. Okay, so his Item was hot enough to burn her, and yet Yugi himself was freezing cold. 

The Holder of Time flickered again, Yami then Yugi, and snapped Tea out of her trance. She pounded down the stairs, yelling for Isis at the top of her lungs. 

"Pipe down!" Tristan ordered, coming to his feet as she burst into the livingroom. "Do you want to wake the dead?!" 

Tea gave him a sardonic look and asked where Isis was. 

"Right here Tea," 

Tea turned around and came face to face with Shaadi, Isis behind him. "Who-who are you?" 

"My name is Shaadi. I am the Guardian of the Millenium Items," Shaadi said, bowing slightly to her. "I hear you're having some problems." 

Isis frowned, her forehead creasing. "I told you already Shaadi, they are not enough to risk having all seven Items in the same house! All hell could break loose!" 

Shaadi rubbed the Scales, which hung from his belt, absently as he regarded her. "Perhaps." he turned to Tea. "But I believe things have just become even more dire." 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *snaps out of her Orlando-induced stupor* Heeheehee! How's that Elanor? Good enough? Someone requested that Shaadi show up in Domino, so here he is! ^_^ Poor Ryou, Bakura, and Joey... What are they going to do with a Man-Eater Bug? 

Ishtar: *ponders* Be eaten? 

WSJ: ^__^ Good answer! ...But the wrong one. Ah well. *goes back to drooling over Orlando Bloom* 

Ishtar, Bakura, & Ryou: *sigh* 

Chapter 6: Shaadi and Isis attempt to figure out the exact nature of the curse, in order to undo it. Shen Bakura arrives home, and Tea and Tristan attempt to expalin everything to him. 

Meanwhile, in the Shadow Realm, Joey and Bakura fight against the Man Eater Bug, with little success. Ryou has an idea, but Bakura is unwilling to take the risk. What if it back-fires? 

God Bless Minna-san! 


	6. Fate, Hatred, Time, Death, Desire, War, ...

WSJ: Someone e-mailed me the other day and asked why I'm writing this trilogy, and why I write in general. I found that I didn't have an answer. So these last couple days, I've been pondering this, and now I finally have my reason. The whole reason I write this, and the reason I write to begin with. And it is this: 

I want to impact someone. Change their life for the better. 

There are so many times I've just wanted to lay down and die. When I've wanted to give up. But always there was something to keep me going. Beautiful, wonderful things. I wanted to contribute something, to put a little bit of Elven beauty back into this beauty-starved Middle Earth, if I may take a little liberation. 

So many things have touched me in many ways. Some were fanfics. _Ranma Goes to War_ and its sequels, by J. Austin Wilde. _Mutilation_ and its sequel _The Darkness Returns_, by White Angel. _The Magical Mystery Hibiki Tour_, by Jaelle and Orla. _Another Chance at Everything_, by Brood Mayran. _Black Death_, by Elf. _New Years Kiss_, by Midii Une. The list goes on and on! Other things. The music of Enya (particularly the song "Lothlorien" from her album _Shepherd Moons_. It's the most beautiful peice of music I have ever heard). The fantastical novels of Anne McCaffrey and John White. 

I wanted to do something like that, to make a difference, even if it's only in one person's life. Like LeAnn Womack sings in her song "Something Worth Leaving Behind", "I may not go down in history / I just want someone / To remember me ... But if I was loved and I can find, / That I have touched another life, / Then that's something. / Something worth leaving behind." 

And in the process of trying to find my place, my 'something worth leaving behind', both in my original novels and fanfictions, I've been touched yet again. By you. 

You reviewers have been so kind to me! I remember back in the very beginning, almost a year and a half ago now, when I started out writing crappy little 500-word songfics for Digimon. Of course, at the time _I_ didn't think they were crappy, but apparently everyone else did. I can't count how many times I got cussed out in my reviews back then! 

But now, almost two-hundred fics later, I've come a long way. I've moved from sappy romance to, well, sappier romance. I've expanded from Digimon to Yu-Gi-Oh and Gundam Wing and Ranma. I've learned how to write angst and drama, sometimes the hard way. But you've all been there for me. 

Maybe not technically. I can't think of a single person I'm in contact with now that I've known from the very beginning. But a lot of you have been really loyal to me, even just inside this trilogy of mine. Some of you have even stood up to the flamers! That makes me just sit back and go 'wow!' 

And so I thank you. For everything you've done for me, I thank you. It hasn't been easy coming, but I'm really glad I'm here. 

Okay, rant finished. I'm starting to tear up here, so let's just get on to the fic! I still don't own YGO, so take your lawyers and wander someplace else. :p Nyah nyah! 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 6 -- Fate, Hatred, Time, Death, Desire, War, Passion 

Isis's eyes widened slightly, and suddenly three pairs of eyes were focused on Tea. "What's happened?" 

Tea shook her head. "I don't know how to explain it! I was just going to check on them, and I noticed that for a minute, it looked like Yami was laying in the bed instead of Yugi. I just thought it was a trick of the light or something, but then it happened again. He was, I don't know, flickering back and forth. And when I tried to touch him, he was really cold, but the Puzzle burned me when I touched it!" 

Shaadi and Isis frowned at this, and Tristan just looked puzzled. But before anyone could do or say anything more, the front door opened, and Shen Bakura, Ryou's father, stepped inside. He looked surprised at seeing his son's two friends and two people he'd never seen before in his livingroom, but then he just sighed. 

"Okay, what have Ryou and Bakura gotten into this time?" 

Isis and Shaadi exchanged looks. "Tea, Tristan," Isis said, "Would you please explain to Bakura-san while Shaadi and I go see about Yugi?" 

Shen looked surprised again. "Yugi's here?" 

Tea bit her lip and Tristan rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as Isis and Shaadi mounted the stairs. "Well," Tristan began, "Not exactly _here_, no..." 

~*~ 

As soon as Isis and Shaadi stepped into the room, it seemed like the air had dropped thirty degrees. It was dark, despite the bedside lamp being on. Shaadi almost missed it the first time, but Isis's gasp clued him in. Yugi was, indeed, as Tea had described it, flickering. 

"Look there," Shaadi said quietly, pointing to the matress on the floor. Isis stifled a scream. Now Malik and Ishtar were doing it too, whatever 'it' was. Shaadi left her there and ran to check on the others, but it seemed that only the Item Holders, Ryou and Bakura excluded, were affected. The others seemed to just be asleep, if they hadn't known better. 

As he stepped back into Ryou's room, Isis was kneeling next to her brother. As Shaadi watched, she reached out to wipe some of the sweat off his brow, and then jerked back like she'd been stung. "He _is_ cold!" she said. "Colder then death!" 

Both of them realised what she'd just said, and Isis turned away from Malik with a muffled sob. "Never fear," Shaadi said quietly, kneeling next to her. "He is not gone yet. I have always known your brother and his yami to be a fighter. Bakura knows what he is doing, even if Joey and Ryou do not. They will not fail." 

Isis turned back to face him, tears sparkling in her eyes. "But they will! They only barely survived last time! And even then it wasn't this bad, and they had all three yamis working together! I don't know if they'll have the strength to do it again!" 

Shaadi looked at her severly. "This has happened before?" 

Isis nodded, her eyes downcast. "Hai, about three months ago now. You did not feel the disturbence in the Shadow Realm? Not even with two Items at your call?" 

Again Shaadi was absently rubbing his hand up and down the Scales, and his other hand drifted up to the Ankh. "I did, but it was nearly time for the Locking Rituals, so I paid it no heed." 

Isis muffled a cry and tried to resist the erge to launch herself at the Guardian. "It _was_ the Locking Rituals! They wanted Ryou-chan! And this time they're going after little Serenity Wheeler! You mean you've known about the Locking Rituals, and just let them happen?!" 

Shaadi looked mournful. "My family had been Guardian of the Millenium Items ever since they were created five-thousand years ago. Yes, we have known that every two-hundred* years an innocent life must be sacrificed, and we have allowed it. But tell me something, Holder of Death," he gave the Tauk's element, instead of its name. "Would you rather have the Shadow Realm take over the entire world, as it tried to do through the previous incarnation of Seto Kaiba in Yami-Yuugi and Yami-Bakura's time?" 

Isis was silent. 

"I thought as much," Shaadi said, sighing. "Yes, we allow the Locking Rituals. To discontinue them would mean the end of the world. But we never liked it. And this? This is an outrage!" 

Isis looked up to see the normally calm Shaadi shaking in anger, his fists clenched. "To think that they thought they could sacrifice an Item Holder... Not to even bring to light that they dared to mess with the Holder of Fate! It is no wonder that the Lady chose to protect her own!" Shaadi managed to calm himself, and looked kindly at Isis. "With Fate on Ryou's side, he _will_ prevail, Isis Ishtar." 

Isis was rather puzzled, to say the least. She brought her hand up to brush absently over the Tauk. "Just now, you called me the Holder of Death. And Ryou, the Holder of Fate. What do you mean?" 

Shaadi's eyes got a rather far-away look in them. "Seven Millenium Items, each forged in the very essence of a different element. And we are not talking about wind, water, and fire, but of the more dire, raw elements. Seven Items, each with their own power, each with their own destined holder, each with their own designated element. Ring, Rod, Puzzle, Tauk, Eye, Scales, Ankh. Fate, Hatred, Time, Death, Desire, War, Passion. 

"'Fate for the Millenium Ring, for the poor innocent was Fated to have it. Hatred for the Millenium Rod, for its Holder shows no love. Time for the Millenium Puzzle, because the Pharoah stands immortal. Death for the Millenium Tauk, for it can see into the future, past Death's hold. Desire for the Millenium Eye, for above all its holder desires a lost love. War for the Millenium Scales, for they were created to stop one. Passion for the Millenium Ankh, for its holder is passionate about what he must protect.' That is what is written in the Book of the Dead on the subject of the Millenium Items." 

(WSJ: Yes, for those of you that took notice, that is what Lobsang quoted in chapter 5 of ASN) 

Isis blinked, switching instantly into Egyptologist mode. "But I've studied the Book very thouroughly. It never said anything about that." 

In a rare moment of humor, Shaadi winked at her. "Ah, but you could never presume that you have all the pages, can you, my dear Isis Ishtar?" 

Isis bristled at this, but desided to let it pass. Instead she went on to her next question. "Okay then, why would you refer to Ryou's Ring as 'Lady'?" 

"Not the Ring itself, my dear," Shaadi admonished gently. "Lady Fate herself. She allowed the Ring to be forged, and even helped the process, giving the Ring its statis as Item of Fate. She loves Ryou dearly, and would never allow harm to come to him." 

"Then why allow him to be hurt so badly by Bakura?! Why allow him to be beated, mutilated, _blinded_ by the Spirit of the Ring that she herself helped forge?!" Isis burst out. Malik and Ryou were very good friends, after all, and Isis was very fond of the little white-haired boy. 

"That," Shaadi said in all solemnity, "Was Fated to happen." 

"Aarrg!" Isis yelled, "You are so impossible sometimes!" 

"That may be, but this time I am not kidding. Ryou has a part to play, and if things before had not happened, then things to come would not come. You of all people, as the holder of the Tauk, should know this, Isis Ishtar." 

Isis was stopped from saying anything when a loud yell erupted from downstairs. "HE WHAAAAAAT!?!?!?!?!" Isis and Shaadi both winced, then chuckled. 

"It seems, my dear Shaadi," Isis said, playing the Guardian's game, "That Bakura-san has found out from Tea and Tristan the Fate of his son." 

Shaadi groaned slightly at the bad joke. "Let us go reassure him," He stood, and held his hand out to Isis. 

After a moment of deliberation, she took it, and he pulled her to her feet. For a moment they were only inches apart, and Isis's breath caught as she stared into his eyes. Then she quickly stepped away, pulling her hand out of his and blushing lightly. "Let's." 

She turned away quickly to go downstairs, and so did not see the hurt expression that flickered across Shaadi's face. 

~*~ 

* The original text from VotH states that the Locking Rituals are only needed every two-thousand years, but I've changed that to two-hundred. 

()()()()() 

WSJ: Okay, a few notes here. First off, I have no idea where the Isis/Shaadi hints developed from. It must be this overly-sweet iced tea I keep drinking. *shrugs* I may or may not make anything come of it. We'll have to see. 

Second, sorry about no Shadow Realm action in this chapter. This was just some explaining that needed to be done. ^_~ You'll have to wait one more chapter for the battle with the Man-Eater Bug. 

Oh yes, the name bit. When Isis and Shaadi (sometimes Kaiba too, but usually only those two, since they're the most formal out of the bunch) are talking about Shen Bakura, Ryou's dad, they call him Bakura-san. When talking about Bakura, ie, ex-Yami Bakura, they call him either just Bakura, Spirit of the Ring, or Bakura-kun. Ryou is either Ryou, Ryou-kun (Shaadi), or Ryou-chan (Isis). 

And, last but not least, I'm going to a writing contest this Saturday, and I'm rather nervous, so wish me luck! Gimme a prayer if ya' think of it! Cross your fingers for me! Ja! 

Chapter 7: In the Shadow Realm, Joey and Bakura square off against the Man-Eater Bug. Ryou's idea goes off without a hitch, but Joey, Ryou, and Bakura discover some rather desturbing, frightening, and just plain maddening information in the process. 

God bless minna-san! 


	7. Hostage

WSJ: *pacing up and down the room* 

Ranma: *snorts at her from his possition flipping through her drawings* What now? 

WSJ: I'm rather annoyed right now. I did _great_ in the contest! I know I did! But I won _nothing_!!! Zip! In fact, one of the judges actually wrote that my work was 'too dark'!!!! You guys don't care if it's dark, do ya'? AND, since I was gone all day, I put in a tape to tape the new episodes of YGO, and I just found out that IT DIDN'T RECORD!!!! I was looking forward to watching them this afternoon to get over my disappointment about the contest!!!!!!! 

Ranma: *lets her rant* Uh huh. And what else? 

WSJ: *throws her hands up in frustration and continues to pace* My muses! I just got them back, and they've run off again, taking Ryou _and_ Bakura _and_ Malik with them!!! 

Ranma: *groans* Great, so that's why I've been struck with temporary muse-duty... Any evidence? I don't want to be here any longer then I have to be... 

WSJ: *hands him a note in Fiore's handwriting* Only this. 

Ranma: *reading out loud* 'Stop writing this thing right now. You're giving Dark Magicians everywhere a bad name. Sorry, but I'm leaving and taking everyone with me until you fix things. ~Fiore' What's he talkin' about 'SJ? 

WSJ: *shakes her head* This chapter. He's mad at me. I'm pretty sure Elyssa and Alex are still around though, just hiding in case he comes back for a repeat of last night's fight. *winces* K'so, those Dark Magic Attacks of his hurt... 

Ranma: *blinks* So why aren't you an oozing mess? 

WSJ: *grins* I had cold water on hand. Being cursed as an Amazon does have its advantages, bad grammer nonwithstanding. Those bonbori pack a good punch! Anyway, on to the story. Give me good reviews! Assure Fiore that you still love him so that he'll bring Ryou and the others back! I _need_ them! *pleades* 

Ryoga: *wanders through to read the disclaimer* SJ-chan doesn't own YGO. Nor Ranma and I. She only owns Briar-Rose and the Council of Five. 

WSJ: *stops and turns to the audience* Hey, I've got a question for all you nice reviewer peoples. *takes a deep breath* What the hell makes this trilogy so good in you eyes?! I mean, there have to be _hundreds_ of Bakura-tortures-Ryou fics. I've only seen three over the one-hundred review mark, VotH and its sequels, _Mutilation_ (White Angel) and its sequel, and _Impacting Pain_ (ShadowSpirit) and _its_ sequel. What makes this story (and those other two) so different from the rest? 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 7 -- Hostage 

"A M-man-Eater Bug?" Joey asked, flinching away from the shadows. "Let it eat _you_ Bakura, _I've_ already been through that gig!" 

Ryou looked horrified for a moment, until Bakura chuckled tightly and put a hand on the telepath's shoulder. "That's right, you weren't there for that, were you Ryou? I'll tell you later." 

"So what do we do?" Joey asked. 

Bakura gave him an exhasperated look, pulling Ryou's, now his, deck out of his pocket. "Joey no baka! Summon a monster!" 

"Wait!" Ryou yelled. "If you summon something, the Man-Eater'll just destroy it! And I don't know if I have the strength to sheild anyone or anything else right now." 

Bakura frowned. "Actually aibou, any monster summoned is taken from the summoner's life force, so it shouldn't effect you. But you're right about the Man-Eater." 

"Of course! I have, after all, been using that card for years." 

"So what'a we do?" Joey asked again as a heavy footstep sounded in the darkness. 

Ryou pulled at Bakura's arm. "Change of Heart. Then a monster to destroy it." 

Bakura's face lit up. "Of course! I'm an idiot!" He drew the needed card from the deck and held it over his head. "I summon the Change of Heart! Get that Bug under control!" The angel/demon appeared, and flew into the shadows. A moment later the Man-Eater Bug, manner much subdued, stepped into the light. 

Joey grinned as he drew a card of his own. "All right then! Let's get ready to rumble! Red Eyes Black Dragon!" The dragon appeared and let out a burst of flame, insinerating the helpless Bug. The Change of Heart and Red Eyes both retreated to their respective cards, and, forgetting themselves for a moment, Joey and Bakura slapped each other a high-five. 

A sudden, strangled cry from behind them caused them to whirl around. A Dark Magician, one that looked a lot different then Yugi's, was standing behind them, a wicked smirk on his face. One of his arms was wrapped around Ryou's neck to prevent escape, and the other held his staff, the end crackling with electricity, near Ryou's face. 

The Dark Magician was dressed in robes much like those of Yugi's DM, but they were done in red and black, instead of purple. His skin had a slick look to it, and his hair was long and light blue in color. His eyes were slanted, and bright green. When he smirked, fangs glimmered in the glow Ryou was still giving off. 

"Ryou!" 

"You let him go!" 

To the surprise of both Joey and Bakura, the Dark Magician spoke. "I doubt very much that that shall be happening anytime soon, you little intruders. Briar-Rose has requested that this one be delivered to her to do with as she pleases. You two will be put to death. As soon as the Locking Rituals are completed." 

"Briar-Rose again..." Bakura growled, his fisted clenched. "What does she want with my aibou?" 

"Apparently," the DM said in a rather bored tone. "She has taken quite a fancy to him. I assume she wants him as her mate. I really don't care, personally." 

"Never!" Ryou gasped out, doing his best to keep breathing around the choke-hold the DM had him in. "I'll never do that! And let my friends go!" 

The DM chuckled. "I do believe that that is rather impossible. You see, although I am of a higher ranking then Briar-Rose herself, Lais has ordered that we have to listen to her." the DM pouted slightly. "So I really have no say in it." 

"Lais?" Joey asked. "Who the hell?" 

"Our leader," the DM said, his green eyes sliding to look at Joey. "Some of you would know him as the Witty Phantom. I am known as Firas, one of the Council of Five. Come now, my brethren await you in the Council Chamber." 

"Hell no," Bakura said, crossing his arms. "I'm not moving until you let Ryou go!" 

Firas sighed dramaticly and rolled his eyes, then smirked again, wider then before. "It is not smart to oppose me," he hissed. "When I hold the lives of your aibou, and your," his eyes slid again to Joey, "Sister in my very hands. One more literally then the other." He grinned sadisticly and moved his staff to touch Ryou's cheek, sending a bolt of electricity rippling through the telepath's body. 

Ryou's mouth opened in a silent scream of pain, his back arching and his muscles spasming involentarily. He went limp, and for a moment the aura around him flickered. As soon as Firas had pulled his staff away, a nasty burn began to form on Ryou's cheek. The Blind One's breathing was shallow, and it looked like it hurt for him even to do that. 

"KISSAMA!" Bakura yelled, his fists clenched so tightly that his fingernails were beginning to cut into his palms. He was trembling in rage, and Joey took a firm hold on the ex-spirit's shoulders to make sure he didn't try anything stupid. 

Firas smirked and made to touch his staff to Ryou again. "Ah ah Bekhura, wouldn't want to make me mad, now would you?" He looked up and past them, into the shadows behind them. "Jalila, Rigel, take them." 

Joey whirled around and found himself facing a Celtic Guardian and a Magician of Faith. But these two, like Firas, didn't look quite right. The Celtic Guardian's hair was much darker then usual, and was dressed in dark browns and black. His eyes were steel grey. The Magician of Faith had hair that was flame red, and eyes that were a heartless green-blue. She too, was dressed in dark colours, grey and royal blue. 

Even as the Magician of Faith, Jalila, cast a spell over Joey so he could not run or fight, the Celtic Guardian, Rigel, pulled his sword with a mind to hold it at Bakura's throat. 

"No need for that Rigel," Firas assured him with a smirk, watching with pleasure the way that Bakura trembled with surpressed rage, unable to do anything. "As long as I hold this little one, he won't try anything." 

Rigel grinned as he slid his sword back into its sheath and grabbed Bakura's left arm, twisting it around behind him. "So this is one of those yami/hikari pairs that Brair-Rose warned us about? I wonder how they escaped her spell..." 

"Because Briar-Rose is an idiot," Jalila spat, dragging Joey behind her as she walked over. "I _knew_ she was casting it wrong, but would she listen to me? Noooo..." 

"Can it Jal'," Firas warned. "We know you don't like her. But she and Lias gave us our orders, and we have to follow them. Now lets get this overwith. Rimah may need our help with those other two who were giving us trouble earlier." 

Bakura's ears perked up at this. Other two? If they were who he thought they were, then maybe all was not lost afterall. He was so deep in his thoughts, that at first he didn't notice that Rigel and Jalila were taking him and Joey down a different fork of hallway then where Firas was carrying Ryou. 

"Where are you taking him?!" he yelled in a panic. 

Firas turned, a nasty grin across his face. "To Mistress Briar-Rose's bed chambers, of course. Do not worry, the cells where you are being taken are sheilded, so you don't have to worry your pathetic mortal head about being drained. And your stay will be short, after all. As soon as the Locking Rituals are finished, you're going to be killed." With that, he turned and continued to walk, dispite Bakura's desperate cries from behind him. The last thing Firas heard of them before they entered the sheilded detention block was the sound of a very annoyed Rigel drawing his sword. 

Firas took Ryou to Briar-Rose's chambers, and threw the telepath unceremoniously to the ground, a delighted smirk playing across his features. Briar-Rose had said she wanted the blind white-haired one. She didn't say in how many peices. Like Jalila, Firas really didn't like the over-confident, pompous preistess. 

The evil Dark Magician let himself chuckle, and raised his staff. 

~*~ 

Bakura was thrown roughly into a bare stone jail cell, Joey tossed in on top of him. He growled and pushed the still-paralyzed blond off of him, scrambling toward the door just as it closed. 

Outside, Rigel and Jalila were talking to a Harpy Lady, apparently this 'Rimah' they had spoke of. She, like her fellows, looked like no Duel Monster Bakura had ever seen. Her hair was long and gold, and she actually looked a bit like Mai. 

Past the three Elders, he could see the door to the cell across the hall from his, and was startled to see a pair of eyes staring through the food slot back at him. Green eyes. Ones he knew. 

The green eyes widened as they recognised Bakura's own brown ones, and the owner of the green eyes jerked his head toward the three chattign Duel Monsters (if that was what Rigel, Jalila, and Rimah really were). Bakura indicated he didn't know what to do about them. 

However, the problem solved itself when the three apparently decided to go see if they had any new orders, and left the detention block. Bakura opened his mouth to saw something to the green eyes, when behind him Joey groaned as the effects of Jalila's spell began to wear off. Bakura ignored him for the moment. "Jonathon?" he asked in a stage whisper. 

"I thought it was you," came his twin's voice back to him from across the hall. "What are you doing back here?" 

"What else, the Locking Rituals. This time they want a friend of mine and Ryou's, Serenity Wheeler. We're on a rescue mission, but we managed to blow it," 

"Well, what else is new?" Jonathon asked. 

Bakura was about to yell at him for that when a new voice entered the conversation. "Serenity Wheeler? Joey-boy's young sister?" 

Bakura groaned at the voice, not sure whether to be thankful or not. "Yes Pegasus, Joey's little sister." 

"I saw her as they dragged us in," 

Joey sat bolt upright, shaking off the last effects of the paralysis. "You did? Is she okay? Can we get to her?" 

"Hello to you too Joey-boy," Pegasus said dryly. "She appeared to be fine, but under some sort of hypnotism. If we could get out of these cells, we could probably grab her and you four could get out of here before anyone even noticed." 

"Not that easy," Bakura said, his voice sad. "They took Ryou. He's someplace else." 

"Well now," Jonathon said. "That would be bad. So what do we do?" 

"We make a break for it," Joey spoke up. "Grab my sister and hunt for Ryou. Why not? Playin' it by ear's worked before." 

"Right then. So... How do we get out?" 

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Duh. Shadow Powers." 

"But you're not a yami anymore," Joey pointed out. 

"So? Doesn't mean I don't have Shadow Powers. Stand back from the door you guys, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!" 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *pants at the sheer longness of this chapter* Hey, if anyone's in the mood for a little humor after this bit of angst, go read my new story _Aw, Nuts!_ It's a parody of all the millions of Bakura-beats-Ryou fics, including my own. ^_^ Onegai? I'd really like your imput on it. Brood, you should _definatly_ read it. You'll love it. ^__^ It reminds me of something Zutsokaki might write... 

Chapter 8: Bakura, Joey, Jonathon, and Pegasus institue their break-out plan, grab Serenity, and run. But they're having a bit of a hard time finding Ryou... 

God bless minna-san! 


	8. Goodbye Brother

WSJ: Hm.... It seems to me that at this point the fic is somewhere between halfway and two-thirds of the way over. The big action-y stuff will be happening in this chapter and the next, and then it goes down-hill from there. 

Ying-Yang: *peers over her shoulder at the keyboard* Shouldn't you be working on that 2000-word research paper you have due this Friday? 

WSJ: *sweatdrops* Um... Probably? 

Ying-Yang: *shakes her head* Well, Fiore's back, but he's still nurcing his wounded ego. I don't know what he's so worked up about. Alex doesn't seem to care that there's an evil Celtic Guardian around. 

Voice off-set: Kissama!!! *Alex runs through, chasing Rigel, the evil Celtic Guardian* 

WSJ & Ying-Yang: *sweatdrop* 

Ying-Yang: Was I just saying he didn't care? 

WSJ: *grins* Well, Bakura and Ryou got back just in time for all the "good stuff". Malik's a little miffed that he doesn't show up (concious, that is,) for a few more chapters yet. :D Poor guy... 

Elyssa: *pokes her head in* We don't own YGO, but I don't think anyone ever actually reads the authors notes, so what does it matter? On to the show! ^~ 

WSJ: Oh, and R Amethist? No, the Elements of the Items (Ring is Fate, Puzzle is Time, ect.) are completly made up by me. ^_~ If ya wanna use 'em in a story, e-mail me and I'll probably say yes. That goes for everyone. If you see something you like (the Locking Rituals, Briar-Rose, ect.) e-mail me and I may let ya' use 'em in a fic. ^_^ To me, plagerism (WITH PERMISSION FROM ME) is _serious_ flattery. *blushes* 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 8 -- Good-bye Brother 

Ryou awoke, and the first thing he noticed was pain. It ripppled up and down his body in waves. He started to roll over, and that was when he noticed the second and third things. He couldn't move, and he was laying on something soft, like a bed. It wasn't that he was tied down or something, but that everything from the neck down was completly paralyzed. 

He stretched out his mental sences, feeling desperately for Bakura, as he always did first thing upon waking. He was surprised to find that, while he could feel Bakura, he was a long way off. And for the moment unsheilded. Joey was with him. Quickly Ryou reconstructed the sheilds around them, and continued his probe. 

He was startled to find Serenity, her white aura, much like his own, dimmed by some sort of spell. He quickly threw a protective barrier over her as well, feeling the pull that maintaining four sheilds was beginning to exhert on his mental energy. 

Ryou began to pull in his psycic probes, and tenced as he felt someone coming toward him down the hallway, a deep crimson aura, like it had been stained with old blood. The door to whatever room he was in opened, and the blooded aura walked in, taking a seat in a chair by his bed. It was then that Ryou spoke. "Who are you?" 

A deep, feminine voice spoke up, calm like Isis's, but deeper, like Mai's. "A... Friend. Yes, I suppose I could be considered a friend." 

"Why can't I move?" Ryou asked, his voice scratchy. He ached for a drink, but he most definately didn't trust this woman. Only killers had auras that colour. Not that he'd ever encountered any killers. 

"Temporary paralysis. Firas's electric magic caused your muscles to freeze up. It should wear off pretty soon." 

Ryou nodded slightly. He was already beginning to get feeling back into his fingers and toes, and if he concentrated hard enough they would twitch on command. 

Suddenly he froze, a vaugue memory coming back to him. That time was all mist and shadows anyway, but he remembered, a little, what had happened during the original Locking Rituals three months ago. He could remember brief flashes of crimson, and he'd just now realized that he'd been sencing this same aura without knowing it. 

Ryou's eyes flashed and his awareness flared. "You're Briar-Rose!" he accused. "You're the one behind all this!" 

Briar-Rose smiled coily, though there was malice behind it. "Not cheifly behind it, no. But you were correct Ryou-koi, I am Briar-Rose." 

Ryou was appauled at the impromptu nickname. "I thought you were in love with Kaib-er, Seth." 

"No, not as such. Not love, really. Just the need for power. And, after all, Seth _was_ high priest." she said off-handedly. 

Ryou glowered at her. "You're sick Briar-Rose! I could never love someone like you!" 

Even without his sight, Ryou could feel the ruthlessness coming off of her in waves. "Oh Ryou, I don't care about love. I told you that before. Just power. Untold fathoms of _power_. And you have it. And it _will_ be mine." 

Helpless in his semi-paralysed state, Ryou could only bite his lip in repressed anger as Briar-Rose snapped a pair of iron shackles around his wrists, binding them together in front of him. A heavy iron chain hung from them, dragging his shoulders into a droop. Briar-Rose held the other end, like a mistress and her dog. 

"Come now Ryou-koi," she said, smirking at his fuzzy glare. "Let's go watch the festivities as your friends die, one by one." 

And Ryou, in all his anger, didn't notice when she picked something up off the bedside table and slid it into a holster under her robe. 

~~~~~

Bakura took a deep breath, dipping into long unused stores of Shadow Magic. What no one else seemed to understand was that Shadow Magic was not a trait of a yami, or even an Item Holder. It came along with the person, just like Ryou's psycic powers did. It just happened to be that everyone Bakura had ever met with Shadow Powers had been a yami or Item Holder. 

The doors to their cells rattled on their hinges, and then flew open. The ex-tomb robber gulped in a lungful of air, thankful for the oxygen. 

"Come on already!" Joey hissed, darting past him and into the hall. "We're gonna have guards breathin' down our necks!" 

Jonathon and Pegasus emerged from the cell across the hall, and they followed Pegasus's lead as he ran toward where he'd seen Serenity. Bakura had to use all his will power not to charge in the opposite direction, to where Ryou'd been taken from them. 

"There!" Pegasus yelled, screeching to a halt. In front of them the corridor opened into a large room, one that Bakura, Pegasus, and Jonathon recognised all too well. The ceiling soared into shadows overhead, and hiroglyphs were carved into the walls. In the center of the room stood a stone alter, where Serenity lay spralled out. It was the same chamber where Ryou's attempted sacrifice had taken place three months earlier. 

"Serenity!" Joey ran up to the alter, gathering his unconcious sister into his arms. Thankfully, she was not chained to it, as Ryou had been. "Come on babe, speak to me!" 

Something was nagging at the back of Bakura's mind, and he suddenly realized what it was. He, Joey, and Serenity were very softly glowing white. They were still being sheilded, even out of the detention block! Bakura's spirits rose. Ryou must still be alive and well to still be able to cast his psycic sheilds! 

"Come on sis," Joey pleaded, his face and voice desperate. "Please Serenity, wake up..." 

To his delight, his sister moaned softly and opened her eyes. "Joey? Onii-san?" 

Joey grinned, his eyes filled with delighted tears. "Yeah, it's me sis. I told ya' I'd always be there for ya'." 

"Where are we?" 

There was a sharp exclamation in Egyption of what Joey thought had to be very naughty words from behind them. "In a lot of camel dung." Jonathon translated for his foul-mouthed brother. 

Joey helped his sister off the alter, and then turned around, careful to keep her behind him. In the doorway, cutting off their only line of escape, stood a mass of Dark- and Shadow-type Duel Monsters, with Firas heading the frey. There had to be at least two-hundred demon-Duel Monsters there! 

Bakura growled, low in his throat, as his eyes fell on Firas. "Where's Ryou?" 

"It's none of your concern anymore." the Dark Magician said, dismissing Bakura with a wave of his hand. 

Bakura hissed, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he pulled a card from his deck. "I'll show you whose concern it is! Doma, the Angel of Silence!" 

Pegasus, Joey, and Serenity looked at each other and nodded, for once in perfect agreement. 

"Red Eyes Black Dragon and Flame Swordsman!" 

"Thousand Eyes Restrict!" 

"Petite Angel!" (WSJ: I've never seen any of Serenity's cards, but I know she duels, and I'm guessing she has a "cutesie deck" similar to Tea's.) 

"Soldiers," Firas yelled, though his eyes never moved from Bakura, "Attack!" 

With a roar, the battle was joined. 

~~~~~

Briar-Rose crouched next to a large crack in the chamber wall, about twenty feet up from the ground. She watched as the battle began, grinning in anticipation as she watched Firas and Bakura go at it. Ryou stood tense behind her. 

His healing abilities had since kicked in, and he was feeling quite better, but extremely anxious. He could easily sence Bakura and Joey in the cavern below, as well as Serenity, and Pegasus and Jonathon, the two familiar silver and sky blue auras he'd felt earlier. He could hear the sounds of battle. The screech of Harpy Ladies, the roar of Joey's Red Eyes, the zap and crackle of Firas's electric magic. 

Ryou was so distracted by shunting attacking monsters away from his friends via a simple command incerted into their simple brains, and helping Joey keep his monsters in this realm, since he was both rather inexperienced and rather ambicious (the current count of monsters he had summoned was up to six), that he didn't notice Briar-Rose drawing a pistol from under her robes. 

~~~~~

Jonathon felt rather out of place in the melee, having neither Duel Monsters nor the powers to summon them. He stuck close to the wall, his eyes mostly on Bakura. 

Off to the left, near the doors, Joey and Serenity were fighting back to back, the Swamp and Lava Battleguards, Flame Swordsman, and Petite Angel forming a protective ring around them while the Red Eyes Black, Thousand Dragon, and Time Wizard went on the offensive. 

Pegasus was off to the right, in the back corner, his Thousand Eyes Restrict and several of his Toon creatures tearing furrows through the attacking monsters. 

"By Ra!" Bakura growled, dancing past Jonathon and ducking under a swing from Firas's crackling staff, "There's enough Harpies here to saticfy a whole boat-load of Mai Valintines!" 

Jonathon swept his eyes over the walls as his brother scrambled back after the Dark Magician. His green eyes widened as he found himself facing the mouth of something cold and hard. He'd never seen one before, but he'd heard enough about them to know he was facing a gun, protruding from a gash in the wall about fifteen or twenty feet up. Jonathon could dimly see the figure of the gunman behind the pistol. 

It was not, however, pointed at him, but at his twin's head. Jonathon scrambled to reach his brother in time, and his last coherant thought was that this was going to hurt. Over all the noice of battle, Ryou's voice rang. 

"Bakura! Watch out!" 

That was an instant before the gun fired. 

(WSJ: I was going to end it here, but I decided I'd be nice and keep going. ^_^ You still won't like where I really ended it though, I can gurentee.) 

~~~~~

Everything seemed to freeze as the sound of a gunshot ripped throught he cavern. Bakura whirled around in time to stare into Briar-Rose's eyes as she smirked triumphantly at him. 

_"Thomas!"_

Bakura's eyes widened as Jonathon slid in front of him, the bullet planting itself in the Egyptian's chest. Jonathon fell, and Bakura caught him, kneeling down with his brother cradled in his arms. To his surprise, there were tears running down his cheeks. "Jonathon?" 

The ex-slave opened his eyes, looking up at his brother with pain filling every ounze of those green orbs. "Thomas," he wheezed in their native Hebrew, "Why did you always hate me so?" 

"I-I do not know," Bakura answered truthfully. "You always seemed better then me, even when we were children. And the Ring warped my thinking further. I am sorry." 

"Forgiven." Jonathon answered. "Maybe, in another world, things turned out differently." 

"I hope so," was Bakura's answer as he gently lay Jonathon's still form on the floor. "Good-bye brother." 

~~~~~

As soon as Ryou senced Briar-Rose's intentions, he screamed. "Bakura! Watch out!" and leaped at the preistess. Unfortunatly, he wasn't quick enough, and the shot of the gun came an instant before Ryou's manacled hands slammed into the back of her head. 

She shreiked and fell forward, out of the wall and to the floor of the chamber. Ryou followed, levetating himself down and bathing the room in a feirce white light that caused the demon-monsters to flinch back, his still-chained hands hanging in front of him. 

He stretched out his sences, and was thankful to find his friends all alive and well. Except... 

He caught the anger coming off of Bakura in waves, felt that his other had snapped, and knew that Jonathon was dead. 

()()()()() 

WSJ: There, I told ya'! You're _really_ going to hate me next chapter though!!! 

Okay, two notes. I've started a mailing list for this fic, and any sequels that I might make after this. (I already have at least one in the works) Just send me your e-mail address at yamatos_fangirl@hotmail.com. I'll then send out an alert every time I update. I tend to do it quickly, and I know some of you are complaining that you keep missing two or three chapters, so maybe this'll help. When you do e-mail me, it'd help if the subject line was "Unseeing Hearts Mailing List". 

2nd note. I've started another mailing list. *sweatdrops* Yes, seperate from the other one. This is for people like Brood, who're intrested in _all_ my work, not just this trilogy. Basicly, I'll send out a notice whenever I post or update _anything_, including SoS. Again, just e-mail me with a subject line reading "WSJ Mailing List". 

So basicly, you can go for the first one, and just get updates on SoS and it's sequels, or you can go for the deluxe package on all my works, which expand over several genres, including (but not limited to) YGO, Gundam Wing, Ranma 1/2, and Lord of the Rings. ^_^;; I hope I'm not making a big mistake here... *chuckles nervously* 

Chapter 9: The death of Jonathon has caused Bakura to snap. He goes after Firas, and then makes a decission that could save the lives of Serenity, Joey, and especially Ryou, but at the cost of his own. 

God bless minna-san! 


	9. Sacrifice of Shadows

WSJ: *sweatdrops greatly* And again, I'm putting off my research paper to write... Why? Well... I always write when I'm stressed. *shrugs* It's the way I am. Even better if it's an angst story. Plus, I just figured out the rest of the plot for this, so I'm _dying_ to get it out. ^_^;; Actually, Elyssa and Fiore'll be managing next chapter. 

Ying-Yang: *blinks* What for? 

WSJ: *winces* Because I'll be in hiding. I swear, you guys are _all_ going to be out for my blood when this chapter's done. All I can say is, _trust me_! Please! Trust me like you did when I killed off Kaiba in VotH, when Bakura was beat up in ASN, okay? Please? I really don't feel like writing underground because I have a mass of screaming fans after me. ^^; 

Ryou: *sweatdrops* Okay, that cinches it, I'm out'a here! After all I've been through in this blasted trilogy, I _don't_ trust you SJ! 

Bakura: *grabs him by the back of the collar to keep him from running* Hold up aibou! If _I_ have to go through this, _you_ have to go through this... 

Ryou: *pouts* 

WSJ: *chuckles and hands Ryou a script* Actually, if anything, I'd think Bakura'd be the one running... 

Jonathon: *storms in* WSJ!!!!!!!!! 

WSJ: Eep! That's my cue to leave!!! *runs out the door with Jonathon chasing her, waving around a katana he got from Wufei* 

Bakura: Um... WSJ doesn't own YGO. As if you hadn't figured that out by now... 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 9 -- Sacrifice of Shadows 

Bakura kneeled next to his brother, tears of both anger and sorrow marking their paths down his face. "Briar-Rose..." he growled. "And Firas. I _will_ avenge Jonathon, and Ryou too." He obviously had yet to notice his aibou standing over Briar-Rose's twitching form on the floor, standing silent witness to Bakura's greif. 

Firas chuckled as he moved to whack Bakura across the back of the head with his staff. This was almost _too_ easy. What the Dark Magician _wasn't_ expecting, however, was for Bakura to catch the shaft as it flew toward him, twisting it out of Firas's hands and breaking it neatly into two over his knee. The electric magic in it pulsed once and then died. 

The Dark Magician visibly flinched as Bakura rose and turned to face him, his face dark. Firas was also rather gratified to notice that Bakura was at least two or three inches taller then him. 

And the Dark Magician saw pain in Bakura's eyes. Pain, and sorrow, and anger... And tears. And Firas felt something he never had before, and he never would again. 

Firas, Elder of the Shadow Realm, one of the elite Council of Five, was scared. 

He knew that Bakura would kill him. 

Standing silent over the trembling Demon Monster, Bakura drew the Change of Heart from his deck. He released her, and she obeyed his unspoken command by disappearing into the Red Eyes Black Dragon. Joey stood quietly with Serenity, the demon monsters having fallen back when Ryou entered the room. He allowed the Change of Heart to take his Red Eyes, because he knew that this was something Bakura had to do himself. 

"Red Eyes," Bakura commanded emotionlessly. 

The Dragon responded with a roar, releasing his Molten Fireball Attack. Firas was gone without even a final scream. 

With an almost inhuman yell, Briar-Rose was suddenly on her feet again, pushing past Ryou to stand in front of Bakura. "How dare you!" she yelled, a hysterical edge to her voice. "You filthy, Ra-forsaken _tomb robber_!" Somehow, dispite all the times Yami had called him that, Briar-Rose said it more insultingly. She still had her pistol in her hand, and was clenching it tightly. 

Bakura opened his mouth to offer a retort, or to order the Red Eyes to attack, but he paused. If he destroyed Briar-Rose and they escaped, yes, they would be safe. But the Locking Rituals still wouldn't be done. Who knew who would be the next target. Yugi? Malik? Tea? Or worse, would the Shadow Realm, its edges unbound as they were, spill over into the Real World? Something had to be done. Bakura knew he had to be the one to do it. 

He just wished that Ryou would understand, because he knew that his hikari wouldn't. 

"A pure heart is something I do not have Briar-Rose," he said quietly. "You are right, I am a tomb robber. I am also a murderer, a cheater, a chronic lier, and many other things I would not mention in my aibou's presence." He had by now spotted Ryou out of the corner of his eye, the telepath's expression one of puzzlement. Joey and Serenity looked much the same way, and Bakura was not in a possition to see Pegasus. 

"But you want to know something Briar-Rose? One day, I met a little boy, who showed me how wrong I was. He showed me that I was no better then a desert scorpian. And that realization scared me so much, that I tried to rid myself of him. I beat him to the point of death, many times. But when someone else tried to take him from me, I finally saw how much he meant to me." 

Bakura felt a tear slide down his cheek, and saw that Ryou was blinking back tears of his own. Bakura smiled bitterly and continued. "He is light, he _is_ hikari. He is the very purest of pures. And I will not have him hurt anymore. The Locking Rituals must be done. I say, so be it," he ignored the Wheelers' gasps of horror, thinking he meant Serenity. "I say again Briar-Rose, a pure heart I have not, but maybe, in this, I can atone for past wrongs." 

Slowly, he spread his arms, and Ryou let out a cry when he realized, too late, what his other was doing. "Bakura!" 

The ex-spirit looked over his shoulder, his eyes half-lidded, as Briar-Rose raised the gun at him. "Kimi no koto wa itsudemo mamoru, aibou*." 

Then the gun fired, almost drowned out by Ryou's scream, and he was gone. 

Briar-Rose crowed triumphantly as Bakura fell first to his knees, and then back onto the ground, his eyes wide, even in death, a bloody bullet wound evident over his mortal heart, now unbeating. 

She heard a gentle sob behind her, and her smirk widened as she turned to face Ryou, whose aura was brighter then ever in his grief-strikenness. His eyes seemed even more blank then usual, and depression rolled off of him in waves. Even his usually-white glow looked a little shadowed into grey. 

The preistess opened her mouth to say something, when Ryou cut her off, his face in shadow, and expressionless. "Quiet. I want none of your slick talk Briar-Rose. I'll _kill_ you before you get the chance." 

Muscle and sorrow braced against iron, and iron gave way, the shackles clattering to the stone floor. 

Briar-Rose gasped. "B-but that's impossible!" 

Ryou was glowing brightly now, and a sickly green mist hovered around the Millenium Ring, the curse in its visible form. Suddenly, in a burst of green and silver shards of light, the mist was thrown aside, allowing the pure golden light of the Ring to shine down on the now-terrified Briar-Rose. 

"Briar-Rose," Ryou intoned, his voice emotionless, hollow, and dead-sounding, his face impassive. "Lady Fate has givin me jurisdiction over you. You are charged and guilty with murder, villianry and many other crimes I would not speak of in front of innocents. You are Fated," the capital letter was almost audible. "To be punished. And so I shall." 

He held out a hand, palm toward the preistess. Briar-Rose tried to back up, and found she couldn't move. To the horror of the Wheelers and Pegasus, she began to implode in on herself, her eyes bulging and her mouth open in a silent scream. 

Serenity stifled a scream of her own and hid her face in Joey's jacket. Even Joey himself had to look the other way at the rather grizzly sight. 

A moment later all was silent. The demon monsters were gone. Briar-Rose was no where to be found, save the smoking, slightly crushed pistol that lay where she'd last stood. Ryou was on the ground, the glow around him all but gone. He was kneeling between Bakura and Jonathon, weeping quietly. 

Slowly Joey and Serenity pulled away from each other. They looked at Pegasus, and then at Ryou. After a moment Joey stepped forward to crouch beside the white-haired telepath, who was all but laying across Bakura's chest, weeping into his shirt. 

"Come on Ryou," Joey said softly. "Let's go home. We can't do anything more here. Briar-Rose is gone, so the curse must be too. Tea an' Tristan an' Isis will be worried about us." 

Ryou sat up slowly, silent, but he nodded. He brushed his hair away from his face, and found it sticky with Bakura's blood. Joey stood up, and Serenity moved to his side, taking her big brother's hand in hers. Pegasus watched quietly, knowing this wasn't his place to intrude. Together they waited for Ryou to say his good-byes. 

Still Ryou was silent, save for his quiet sobs, tears falling from his chocolate eyes. He ran his hand over Bakura's face, gently closing his partner's eyes. He sat still for a moment, then pulled the Ring over his head. Ryou ignored the gasps of the other three occupants of the room, and gently lifted Bakura's head, slipping the chain of the Ring around his neck. The Ring itself rested against his chest, covering the bloody bullet wound. 

"You always did want it for your own," Ryou whispered to the man who had become a brother to him. "But you never figured out that it was yours all along." 

The Wheelers stood quietly as the Shadow Realm dissolved around them, leaving Bakura, Jonathon, Pegasus, and the Ring behind in silent memorial. The next instant the three awoke in their own bodies, in their beds in Ryou's house. Morning sunlight was streaming through the windows, and the sounds of people moving around downstairs could be heard. 

Ryou rolled over in his father's bed and encountered Bakura's still form, no longer breathing and quickly cooling. 

Quietly, Ryou again began to weep. 

~()~ 

*Kimi no koto wa itsudemo mamoru, aibou = I will always protect you, aibou. 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *is long-gone* 

Ying-Yang: *sweatdrop* Well all righty then... Reviews plaese, but no flames! Just trust Itsuji [boss] for once! 

Chapter 10: Awakenings, meetings, and greivings. 

God bless minna-san! 


	10. Song of Mourning

Ying-Yang: *sitting on WSJ's bed, munching on a candy bar* Par-ty! SJ ain't here, like promised! We're in charge! Woo! 

Fiore: *ticked* {No, not you Ying. _Me_. Me and Elyssa. Because we're the oldest of her muses.} 

Ying-Yang: Tsk. Whatever. Here reader people! SJ wanted me to put this on! *sticks a CD in the stereo* 

WSJ: *recorded voice* First off, I just want to reinforce the fact that _I love you guys so much!_ I got a review last night, from a wonderful soul who (very unfortunatly) didn't leave an e-mail address. She (or he, I guess) left it under the name of **Anonomus Wanona**. It moved me _to tears_! If you're reading this A.W.-sama, I just want to say thank you. 

It's so easy to just correspond with the ones who make an effort to reach me. Brood, Li, ShadowWolf, all of them took the initiative and e-mailed _me_ first. I usually don't take time to e-mail reviewers, mostly because there's just _too many_, but if they e-mail me, then it's cool. 

But A.W.-sama's review just kicked me in the head and showed me that I have silent fans too. Those who may not leave reviews, may not even e-mail me because they deem me "untouchable". But I wanna say something guys, I'm not. I'm _not_ some huge writing goddess, up on a throne, unable to carry on any coherant conversation. 

I'm a _teenager_ for cryin' out loud! I'm _fourteen_! I've been reading and writing almost constantly since I was _five_! It's what I do! But that doesn't mean I don't have time for those who love me. And, anyone who loves me, especially you readers, even if I never talk to you, never know you exist, _God_ I love you! Just knowing that I have readers and fans, well, that's what keeps me writing! 

It makes me think of my favorite author, whom I won't mention by name, since I live in mortal fear of copywrite laws. She's close to seventy, has spun out almost thirty books, almost all of which have been best-sellers. I've always looked at her and said 'Aw man, I wish I could be like her.' 

And I've just realised that I am. You guys really love me, and I'm proud of that. I'm proud that I've built up a following, and that I actually get fan-mail every now and then. And I want to say something more before I go: 

_E-mail me dangedit!!!!!!!!!!!_ I wanna hear from you guys!!! It might take me awhile to get back to you, but I always try to reply to my mail! 

My only regret is that AW-sama didn't leave her e-mail. I'd really like to talk to her. One sentence of her review hit me harder than all the rest of it. She said that my stories have helped her rebase her Christianity. _That's_ what moved me to tears. I'm tellin' you guys now, I'm a Christian, a born-again, goin'-to-heaven believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and _I'm proud of it_. I try to reflect that in my writing, but it doesn't always come out clear. For her to say that... 

That's what it's really all about, for me. Not just to impact, I guess, as I said a couple chapters ago, but to show others the love of Christ when they need it most. If I drop dead tonight, never write another word, that single line in AW-sama's review has made it all worth it for me. 

I pray for you guys. I really do. I pray for my readers and reviewers every day. I want you guys to learn to love me, so that through that I can show you Christ. At the risk of sounding like a fanatic, I hope you can see Christ in me, because that's my main purpose in life. 

To be brutally honest, I've been drifting away from my walk with God lately. And I think my writings been suffering for it. Sure, I may write dark things, but it's unnecissary for it to be as dark and utterly _demonic_ as it's been getting. I hope you guys'll forgive me for that. But once again, AW-sama's review shook me down to the very core, and I think I'm ready, now, to go crawling back to my Jesus, as we've all gotta do in some point in time. 

Yes, I write about demons, about telepathic powers, about other such things that would be considered "non-Christian". But what I write does not make up who I am. Everything I write is strictly _fiction_. I believe in none of it. If telepathic and psycic powers exist, then I believe that they do come from the devil. I'm not afraid to say that. I don't care if you flame me, ban me, whatever. I will _not_ denounce my beliefs. 

Someone once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, commited citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." But don't those thoughtful, commited citizens first have to take a stand for their beliefs? 

It starts here. It starts with teens like us. And I don't know about you, but I don't plan on backing down any time soon. 

And now, I'm beginning to wonder how many readers I'll actually still have after this, so I'll cut it. But since I _know_ some of you are out for my blood over killing Bakura, I'll just say one thing. I am absolutely _not_ in a small cabin in northern Scotland. _Nope_! *end tape* 

Fiore: *sweatdrop* {Went overboard, didn't she?} 

Ying-Yang: *double sweatdrop* Yep. But that's our SJ! 

Elyssa: *grins* Standard disclaimers apply! Roll fic! 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 10 -- Song of Mourning 

Everyone was nervous. Things were beginning to get critical. Shaadi was upstairs, making various rounds and checking up on everyone every few minutes. Tea and Tristan were sitting close together on the couch in the livingroom, watching as Shen paced endlessly back and forth. Isis was in the kitchen, banging pots and pans around. She'd convinced Shen to let her clean up, just to let out nervous energy. 

"Something's wrong..." Tea whimpered. "Last time everything was over within twenty-four hours!" 

"Unless you count the thing with Kaiba's 'murder'." Tristan said. 

Shen nearly missed a step. "What?" 

Tea and Tristan smacked their palms to their foreheads simotaniously. They'd forgotten that Shen had been caught in the false memories of the incident that Ryou had prejected. "Never mind." 

Indeed. It had been almost thirty-six hours since Serenity, Yugi, Malik, and Kaiba had first passed out. The sun was just beginning to peek over the edges of the horrizon outside, but no one could see it, for Domino City was covering in a thick, depressing fog. Not uncommon for this time of year, but depressing all the same. None of them had slept at all the last two nights, and all five of them were running purely from the coffee that Isis kept brewing. 

Upstairs, Shaadi had almost dozed off leaning against the wall in Ryou's room, when an almost feminine wail ran through his mind. He jerked awake and staired down at the Ankh around his neck, which was glowing a sickly green colour. "Ankh?" he asked, curious. 

Shaadi's mind drifted to the young man he'd encountered in the Shadow Realm some months back. He'd been drawn to him because he looked so much like the Spirit of the Ring, save around his eyes. He'd also been, at that time, in the company of Maxamillion Pegasus, who was a friend of Shaadi's, and who he often visited in the Shadow Realm. 

He'd felt the Ankh tug toward the boy, and on a whim had given it to him, instructing him that he would return for it when his need for it had passed. Shaadi had learned just a few hours ago from Isis that the boy, Jonathon, had used the Ankh as a vital sheild to protect Bakura and Ryou while they were in the Shadow Realm for the first set of Locking Rituals. A few scant days ago, Shaadi had returned to the Shadow Realm and reclaimed his Item. 

The Ankh squealed again, sounding almost human in Shaadi's mind, and he frowned slightly. "What is it?" The Ankh bucked under his hands, and Shaadi realized that it had inadvertantly formed a connection tot he boy Jonathon, one which was being severed now. The boy's soul was being pushed on to the next realm and the afterlife, which would be a blessing after spending uncountable years in the Shadow Realm. Shaadi sent a silent prayer to Anubis for the young one's soul. 

The Ankh quieted after a minute or so, and Shaadi was just about to resume his napping. At the moment, he was, as noted, in Ryou's room, looking after Malik and Yugi. 

Without prior warning, four things happened at once. The four Millenium Items in the room (The Ankh, Scales, Puzzle, and Rod) gave a tremendous burst of green and silver light as the curse was thrown aside, and then began to glow steadily gold. Malik sat bolt upright, Yugi rolled off the bed with a yelp, and both the yamis appeared in mid-air, falling several feet to the ground with no lack of Egyptian profanities. 

Shaadi stared with his mouth open, and then yelled for Isis and the others as he ran tot he next room, shouting for joy all the way, something he never thought he'd do. 

Malik, Yugi, and the yamis watched him go with puzzled faces, until Ishtar ventured to ask, "That _was_ Shaadi, right? I wasn't seeing things?" Malik, Yugi, and Yami nodded their affirmatives that they'd seen it too. They had no time for any other talk, however, when Isis and Tea burst into the room. 

Both women instantly burst into releived tears at seeing they were none the worse for wear. Isis latched onto Malik's waist and began to cry into his shirt, while Tea flung herself at both Yami and Yugi and tried to hug them both at once. 

The four boys looked at each other and shrugged minutely. Silence reigned for the moment, save Isis's and Tea's sobs, until Ishtar, the only one not being cried upon, again ventured to open his mouth. 

"Er... I do not mean to be rude, but... What the hell just happened?" 

In the next room down the hall, Serenity and Joey were sitting as close as possible on the bed without being in each others' arms. Tristan was giving them the third degree about what had happened, and Joey and Serenity took turns filling him in. 

Kaiba, Seto for the moment, awoke very irate on the bathroom floor with a crick in his neck and demanded loudly to know what was going on. Serenity laughingly called him into their room, and she and Joey proceeded to start the story over again. 

The last room, however, to which everyone eventually gravitated, was the saddest. Shen was standing next to the bed, not exactly sure what to do, with Shaadi a little behind him and to his right. Everyone else eventually gathered around the bed as well, silent witnesses to a tragity. 

Ryou was asleep on the bed, dead to the world due to exhausion. He had his arms around Bakura, who was obviously no longer in the realm of life, and the Blind One had his face burried in his aibou's chest. Every now and then he'd sob or hiccup, even in his sleep. The mortals exchanged glances, unsure of what to do, but Yami and Ishtar stepped forward. 

To the surprise of those gathered, save for Malik and Yugi, both of the immortals had tears on their cheeks as they looked at their dead comerade and his poor little hikari. Gently Yami disentangled Ryou's arms from around Bakura's waist, as Ishtar pulled the sheets back so that they could lift Bakura from the bed. As they did, they began to sing quietly in Egyptian, their own private way of mourning one of the last three Egyptians still alive anywhere in the Shadow Realm or on Earth. 

_Where once was light   
Now darkness falls   
Where once was love   
Love is no more_

Yami took Bakura's head and upper portions, and Ishtar took his feet. They lifted him from the bed with seemingly no effort at all. Without speaking at all, Shen motioned toward Bakura's room. Ishtar and Yami took him in there, and firmly closed and locked the door, prefering to grieve for their own in their own way. 

In the bed, Ryou whimpered and curled into a ball, hugging himself grimly. Another silent tear made its way down his cheek. 

"Let him sleep," Shen whispered, his eyes sad for his son's loss. "And let Yami and Ishtar alone." Everyone else agreed, and they went back downstairs. 

_Don't say- goodbye   
Don't say- I didn't try...   
These tears we cry   
Are falling rain   
For all the lies   
You told us   
The hurt, the blame!_

Yami and Ishtar put Bakura onto his bed, crossing his arms over his chest in the way of the pharoahs. He had more then earned it. Then they sat together against the wall, tears making silent paths down their cheeks as they suddenly realised just how enstranged they were from their home. 

_And we will weep   
To be so alone   
We are lost!   
We can never go home_

Here, in this twentieth century, they could not do as they had been raised to do, what their customs and religion and breeding told them to do. They could not mummify their friend, for that is what he had been. They could not erect a great stone monument to his courage and bravery. They could not bury him where his heart lie, beside his bloved Anjil in the sands of Egypt. The closest they could come would be Angeline Bakura, his beloved reincarnate, but even then it would not be the same. 

_So in the end   
I will be- what I will be   
No loyal friend   
Was ever there for me_

"[Ishtar,]" Yami said in Egyptian, his voice utterly hopeless. "[We are strangers here.]" 

"[We are,]" Ishtar agreed. "[Our hikaris try to help but... It is not the same. We love them, to be sure, but our hearts still lie in Egypt, as Bakura's does too.]" 

"[And the Egypt today is not the one we love,]" Yami said mournfully, hugging his knees up to his chest. "[Ishtar, this world is so dirty. No one stops anymore to care, to look, to listen to what the gods gave us.]" 

Ishtar agreed. "[Sometimes I do not remember why I came here.]" 

"[Sometimes,]" Yami added sadly, "[I do not remember why I saved this world.]" 

_Now we say- goodbye   
We say- you didn't try...   
These tears you cry   
Have come too late   
Take back the lies   
The hurt, the blame!_

Together for once in heart, body and soul, both yamis again began to sing quietly, a plea to Anubis to be merciful on Bakura's soul, as ancient as the pyramids. As ancient as they themselves were. In that one moment, as the last note faded, if Malik and Yugi had been there, they would have seen something amazing. 

They would have seen their others with their masks down, their false fronts shed. Ishtar and Yami huddled together like the scared children they were at heart, just wishing they could go home. Their eyes showed an infinate wisdom, a great sadness and longing that came with living many many years. 

And you will weep   
When you face the end alone   
You are lost!   
You can never go home 

Suddenly Ishtar sat up strait to stare at Yami. "[Your Puzzle,]" he said. "[It controls time! We could go back! Like when you used it to back up time and heal Ryou's arm! Yami, _we could go back_!]" 

Yami clutched at the Puzzle, the longing clear in his eyes. "[Back... Back home... Oh if only... But you know we cannot Ishtar. We cannot leave our hikaris, even if we wanted.]" 

Ishtar sighed, defeated once more. "[You are right my friend. We are needed.]" 

Yami stared dejectedly, looking at Bakura's pale form but not really seeing, until suddenly he sat up with a jolt, still clutching the Puzzle. "[We may not be able to go home,]" he said slowly, and then smiled and switched back to Japanese. "But we can bring a bit of home back here." 

()()()()() 

Elyssa: *giggles* Song-ficcy-ness! That was "Gollum's Song", from the Two Towers soundtrack. We don't own it. 

Alex: *grunts* We don't own ourselves either. SJ's got us in bond-slavery... 

Ying-Yang: Isn't that illegal in the USA? 

Alex: *rolls eyes* Yes, but does _she_ care? 

Fiore: {WSJ would just like to point out, highlighting her earlier fic-length rant, that she does not believe in Ra, or Anubis, or any other Egyptian gods mentioned. She merely writes them to stick with the historical context and Egyptian background of the yamis.} 

Ying-Yang: Riiiiiight... What you just said... 

Alex: Well, it's like, 11 here, and SJ's got a paper to turn in tomorrow, so we'd better wrap this thing up. 

Elyssa: Righty then! Ciao! 

Chapter 11: Ryou sinks into a deep depression without his yami there. He won't eat, he can't sleep, and he either can't or won't speak to anybody. Can Shen get him to come out of this self-imposed shell? Meanwhile, what are Ishtar and Yami planning with the Puzzle? 

WSJ: *tape recorder again* God bless minna-san! 


	11. The Days After

WSJ is now back from her recent trip to Scotland, and is bouncing around her room in a kilt she'd gotten from somewhere over there. Ying-Yang's lounging on the bed, Alex is on the floor reading a magazine, Elyssa's sitting on the computer chair, Bakura's leaning against the wall with a scowl on his face, and Ryou and Fiore are floating near the ceiling to make more room for the non-telepath people on the floor. 

Bakura: *majorly scowling and trying to glare a hole through SJ* What are you so happy about onna? 

WSJ: *pauses* I'm not _happy_, exactly... But I turned my paper in! So now I have a bit less stress. And besides, PMS always makes me bouncy. *shrugs* 

Bakura: *shudders* PMSing onna... Help... 

WSJ: *giggles childishly* New episodes tomorrow! And guess what, I've desided what to do after SoS ends! 

Elyssa: *perks up* Really? People have been asking about that, you know... 

WSJ: Yes, I do know. Wait, hold on, I need tea. *heads out of the room to brew some tea, since her dad insensitively drank the last of it at dinner. Ten minutes later she returns, a wine glass full of tea in one hand* 

Fiore: *looks at her strangely* {You drink tea out of a goblet?} 

WSJ: *shrugs and takes a sip* Why not? 

Ying-Yang: *idly twirling her hair with her fingers* So are ya' gonna tell us about the next stories? 

WSJ: *grins* I will, I will... I'm in the midst of planning out not one, not two, but _four_ more fics to take place after SoS. 

Everyone: *oogles* 

Ryou: *hesitantly* _Four?_ Whatever about? 

WSJ: What else? College! You blokes are being shipped off to Tokyo U! One fic for each year. ^-^ I can't wait to start! 

Alex: You have to finish SoS first. 

WSJ: *waves him off* I know, I know... So let's get to it, eh? ^_^ SoS should run roughly three or four more chapters, this one included. You'll love the end, I can guarentee it. 

Elyssa: No own YGO. _Duh!_

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 11 -- The Days After 

"Ryou? Ryou, do you want any dinner?" Shen Bakura poked his head cautiosly into his son's room, only to see the telepath curled up on his bed, in the exact same possition he'd been left in three hours ago. The Blind One gave a mumbled reply that he wasn't hungry, and shut the door in Shen's face with a small nudge of psycic energy. 

Shen sighed sadly as he turned to head back downstairs. Ryou had been like this for the past three days, ever since coming back from the Shadow Realm. Shen was beginning to despair of ever seeing his son happy again. 

"Oh Angeline..." he murmered as he trudged down the stairs. "I've bungled again... First I buy that blasted Ring, then I can't even protect our son from that bloody spirit, and now I can't even bloody well cheer him up!" 

Shen knew none of the things he was saying were true, or his fault, but he felt better trying to lay blame somewhere. The idea that this entire thing might be out of his hands was just too hard for him to completely grasp. "What do I do?" he moaned aloud. 

"Just what you have been doing." 

Shen whirled around to see Yami and Ishtar standing behind him. "What are you two doing here?" 

The two spirits exchanged glances. "We have some... Business to attend to with Bakura. The front door was open anyway, so we just came in," Ishtar said. Shen was silent, and the two Egyptians gave him sympathetic smiles. "You really are doing all you can. He needs to come out of this on his own. There's no way that you'll be able to forse him to be happy again Bakura-san." 

Shen nodded finally and sighed again. "I suppose you are right. Go on upstairs, Bakura hasn't moved." 

Yami and Ishtar looked startled, and gave him weird looks before accending the stairs. Business indeed. It was time to turn some clocks. Back, that is. 

~~~~~

Ryou heard the quiet footfalls that neared and then passed his room, and he breifly reached out to touch the comforting presences of Yami and Ishtar. Ryou didn't know why they were there, but somehow he felt safer with other yamis around. He didn't think the Shadow Realm was through with him yet, especially after he and Bakura had killed two of their top agents. 

There was a stab of pain in Ryou's heart as he thought of Bakura. A breif sob shuddered through him, but he had no more tears to cry. He slid out of bed and padded over to the window, letting his forehead rest against the cool glass. He slid his eyes closed out of habit and let his sences drift. 

He could feel Ishtar's brassen orange and Yami's tarnished silver auras in the next room, and Bakura's empty shell. His father's nervous violet aura was pacing back and forth downstairs. Socrates, Ryou's cat, was curled up under the kitchen table, the tail of her mint green aura twitching lazily. 

Ryou pushed his senses fursther, scanning outward. He wanted to get away from this house, this room, which held so many memories. Beatings, reconciliations, long late-night talks, some about mortality, some not. He had to get away from Bakura. The only way Ryou knew how was to flee with his mind, since his father most definately wouldn't allow him to flee with his feet. 

He felt the neighbors on either side, the warmth of their auras comforting him. Still he pushed farther. He could feel Yugi and Granpa Moto in the Game Shop, just closing up for the night. He could feel Joey and Serenity, just sitting down to dinner at a nearby resturant. 

Ryou pushed still harder, until he began to sweat from the sheer exhersion. He could sense the closely orbiting twin-auras that were Seto and Mokuba Kaiba in Kaiba Corp, still working. He could feel Tristan and Tea, surprisingly together, taking a walk through the park. Malik and Isis, who were fighting again about some trivial thing. And other minds, many, many others that he didn't know and never would. 

And then suddenly, it was like a dam breaking. Ryou's conciousness suddenly covered the entire globe. Every mind, every aura, all spread out before him in a magnificant kalideiscope of color and shade. Every single person on this Earth... All he had to do was just reach down and touch them, just a few, bend them to his will. Why, he could rule the world if he wanted! 

Some of the souls were connected by thin red strings, the symbol of true soulmates. And it wasn't always between lovers either. In America, Ryou could feel two women who had been friends ever since childhood and would do anything for the other. Their string was one of the strongest. Ryou noticed suddenly that a red string ran from his own heart. Against his better judgement, he followed it, although he already knew where it would lead. And he was right. It led only to an empty shell. 

With a soft cry Ryou jerked himself back into his body, his heart racing and his breath coming in gasps. His hands were shaking, and he was on his knees, clutching at the windowsill to keep from collapsing full-length along the floor. So much power... He'd had millions of people literally at his fingertips... 

It hurt too much to think about, so Ryou climbed laborously into his bed and let the blessed oblivian of sleep claim him. 

~~~~~

"Are you sure this'll work Yami?" 

"It'd better. Ryou's depending on it." 

"Huh? He doesn't even know what we're doing." 

"Hai, but think about it. If Malik died, and you were still around, wouldn't you want to die too?" 

"By Ra! Of course I would!" Ishtar stopped. "You mean-?" 

Yami didn't answer him, and instead concentrated on the Puzzle, which slowly rose to point at Bakura. "Here's hoping this works..." he murmered. 

()()()()() 

WSJ: Yeah, I know, sort of a short chapter. ;_; I'm sorry! 

Ryou: * blinks at the chapter* What did I do? 

WSJ: *scratches her head* Ya' know Ry-chan, I'm not exactly sure about that myself... 

Chapter 12: Bakura, while hanging in limbo, has an intresting conversation with the Lady Fate. She gives him a warning, but he is called away before she can complete it. What does it mean? 

God bless minna-san! 


	12. The Lady Fate

WSJ: *grins* Second-to-last chapter. I really hate for this to be over... Ah well, I'll just start work on _The Yamis of Tokyo U_, the first in the college series I mentioned last chapter. Blah! Horrible title, I know. I'll figure something out... 

Fiore: {What, you're not going to rant about the new episode?} 

WSJ: Ooooooh, you've reminded me! *Alex elbows Fiore and gives him a dirty look* Wasn't it cool!?!?! And Malik's name is Marik! Not Terrance! Yippee! *does a happy dance* The new opening (which I missed last week) was just _so_ bloody brilliant! I especially liked the scene where it's got Bakura, and behind him we see Malik and Isis (that is Isis, right?). And the one right at the beginning where Yami floats through that stone tablet thingy! Anyway, it was soooo sugoi! I can't wait for next week! *giggles* 

Elyssa: -.-; Here she goes again... No own YGO. On to the story. 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 12 -- The Lady Fate 

"Bekhura," 

Bakura's eyes snapped open, and he gasped out of pure shock. He'd expected a paradice, or a firey inferno. But what he saw... Was home. He was standing on the sandy banks of the Nile River, staring in wonder at the place where he'd grown up. 

It hadn't changed a bit. There was the Pharoah's palace, there were the slums where he and Jonathon had been born and raised. There were the pyramids, the half-finished sphynx that was completed and deteriorating in Ryou's day. The sounds of children laughing reached his ears, and he stared at a group of small children playing in the river, their parents sitting nearby. 

"I'm home..." he whispered in wonder. "Am I really home?" 

"Yes my Bekhura, you are." 

Bakura stiffened, his jaw hitting the sand. "That voice," he breathed. "But it cannot be!" 

A pair of long, tanned arms found their way around his waist, and soft lips he knew so well planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. "But it is," 

Bakura turned in her embrace, his own arms coming around Anjil's waist. "Anjil! Oh Anjil! I thought I'd lost you forever!" 

His wife laid her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh. "Never again! Never again shall we be apart!" 

It was then that Bakura noticed he was dressed not in the jeans and sweater he last remembered wearing, but the long, free-flowing pants he was used to from his days as a tomb robber. The hot sand scorched his bare feet, but he didn't care. His chest was bare, save... 

Bakura pulled away from Anjil in shock, his hand coming up to stroke the Millenium Ring, which swung around his neck. "Why am I wearing the Ring? It is Ryou's. He always wears the real one. Even in false form, mine was always only a copy." 

"Beloved, what are you talking about?" Anjil asked, her face worried. At her anxious expression, Bakura laughed and relaxed. "Nothing my dear, nothing at all." 

Anjil laughed too, and tugged playfully at his hand. "Come on Bekhura! I have waited a thousand years to hear your laughter again! Tenre will want to see you!" 

(WSJ: For those of you who may have forgotten, Tenre is Anjil's older brother, a physician, mentioned breifly in ASN chapter 4.) 

Bekhura followed his lover, and together they raced across the sands. Tenre greeted them warmly, and invited them to stay the night, which they did. They made love all night long, making up for the past five-thousand years apart. When the white-hot passion had faded, Bekhura lay awake, his wife's head pillowed against his shoulder, and stared up through a hole in the thatched ceiling at the stars. He sighed in contentment, truly happy. 

"Bakura," 

Bekhura frowned. That name was familiar, yet he could not quite grasp from where. 

"Bakura, please, you must remember." 

And sudddenly, he did. Ryou and the Shadow Realm, Jonathon's death, and then his own. He gently moved Anjil off of him, and sat up. "Who's there?" 

"I am," 

A soft glow began to form next to the bed, and shaped itself into a woman with long blond hair and violet eyes. Her robes swept around her, and wings arched from her back, one black-dragon, one white-angel. 

Bakura gasped. "But, but you're the Change of Heart!" 

The Lady shook her head. "No, the Change of Heart was molded after me. Did not you ever wonder just why both you and your hikari have such an attraction to that particular card? I am the Lady Fate." 

"Lady Fate? Why do you come to me?" 

"The Ring you wear around your neck was forged in me and by me. It holds my power, and my essence. The Ring is Item of Fate, or did you never bother to learn your history?" 

Bakura shook his head. "You forget, my Lady, that I grew up a street rat, lived a tomb robber, died a prisinor. I had no access to such legends." 

Fate regarded him with a rather bemused expression on her face. "No, I suppose you wouldn't have. I come to you with a warning. Your hikari is still in danger. The Shadow Realm still wants its revenge on him, for killing Briar-Rose and Firas, though Ra knows they deserved what they got." 

"You know about them?" 

Again Fate looked amused. "I am your guardian goddess. Why should I not know about things that concern you and your hikari? Especially when there are plans to terminate your aibou, once and for all." 

Bakura bristled, his fists clenched. "Kill Ryou? Not while I live and breathe!" 

Fate now looked rather sad, and dropped her eyes slightly. "That is the problem, Spirit of the Ring. You no longer live, you no longer breathe. You are not there to protect him. But there is a way to go back, if you are willing." 

Bakura was silent, running his fingers lightly through Anjil's hair. Slowly a tear made its way down his cheek. "I just got here... Just found the love of my life... Do I go, and protect Ryou, whom is more of a brother to me then even Jonathon, or do I stay with my Anjil, and be happy forever?" 

" 'Two houses, alike in dignity...' " Fate mused, and Bakura looked up at her, startled. She shook her head, smiling slightly. "Nothing Bakura. Just a bit of old poetry. Have you made your choice?" 

Bakura was silent, staring down at the dirt floor. One hand was intertwined in Anjil's hair, the other rested lightly on the Ring. He swallowed hard, and then gently disentangled his hand from his wife's hair. "I will go back. Ryou needs me more then Anjil, at least at the moment." Slowly he leaned down to kiss his beloved's forehead, as his form began to fade. 

~~~~~

"Hey Yami, did you just hear Bakura say something?" 

The pharoah glanced over at Ishtar. "You heard it too?" 

"An-jil..." the man on the bed muttered. "Aishiteru..." Suddenly he sat bolt upright, sweat pouring down his face. He saw Yami and Ishtar, made a strangled little 'mmrph' sound, and fell over in a faint. 

All was silent for a moment as the two spirits blinked at Bakura's now very much alive but also very unconcious body. "Well," Ishtar said at last, fingering the Rod. "That was intresting." 

Yami rolled his eyes. "Come on, we'll lug him down to the Game Shop..." 

"What for?" 

"We wanna surprise Ryou, right? It won't be a surprise if he walks in and discovers Bakura, will it? Now grab his legs!" 

"Yes, O _mighty_ Pharoah Yami sir!" 

"Shut up before I whack you with your own Rod." 

()()()()() 

WSJ: *grins* One chapter to go! I know these last few are awfully short, but everything's winding down now, so you can't really blame me. ^_^ Reviews please! 

Oh yes, and kudos to all you blokes who guessed that Yami was going to bring back a 'who' and not a 'what'. 

Chapter 13: Ryou gets the surprise of his life... 

God bless minna-san! 


	13. Watashi Wa

WSJ: 200 reviews!!! I'm so happy! Sadly however, this is last chapter. Let's make it the best! 

Ryou: It's also the shortest. 

WSJ: *waves him off* So? It's sweet. *smiles sickeningly* You guys'll love it. I've desided not to do the alternate-ending Ryou/Serenity chapters I promised, because it'll just take too long, and I want to get on to _The Yamis of Tokyo U_. ^__^ YoTU will definatly have some romance in it. Scratch that, a _lot_ of romance, but I'll try to keep it reader-friendly. *grins* Maybe I'll even convert some of you to my couples! *thinks about how Deja's a Mai/Seto fan now because of her fics* Anyway, on to the cast party!! Woot! 

Malik: *stomps over to her* Do you realize that I've only shown up concious in _one chapter?!_ _ONE_!!! And I've had no lines! I out'a kill you! 

WSJ: *calmly dumps her iced tea over his head* 

Malik: *splutters* O-onna! 

Joey: *leans over to Tristan* This could get ugly... 

Tristan: *sips a Pepsi* What, you're telling me? 

Seto: *brightens up* Bets? Anyone? *there are no takers as everyone remembers the cast party for VotH* Aw, nuts... 

Ryou & Bakura: *look around wildly* No, anything but that!!! 

Seto: *confused* What'd I say? 

Yami: *chuckling* _Aw, Nuts!_ It's a parody story SJ wrote about those two. They, *cough* kick each other around a bit... 

Seto: *the meaning of the title dawns on him and he flinches* 

Malik: Ooooonnaaaaa!!!!!! *runs by with a flamethrower, chasing WSJ who's toting a giant super-soaker* Come back here!!! 

WSJ: *sticks her tongue out* SJ no listen to bleach-haired Egypt boy! SJ run! 

Yugi: *looks puzzled as they run by* Since when does SJ-chan speak in third person? 

Joey: Since Shampoo tossed Jusenkyo water on her. She's cursed as an Amazon, remember? She must've splashed herself with her super-soaker. 

Yugi: Ah, that would be the reason for the short Chinese skirt and the bonbori and the hair-buns then... (For those of you who have no idea what they're talking about... Ignore it. *sweatdrop*) 

Serenity: *sighs* Men... Onto the finale! 

Mai: *pops in for no other reason then she hasn't been in the fic yet* WSJ no own YGO! Dang, that Amazon way of talking is addictive... (It really is! I once got stuck talking like that for about two hours 'cuz I couldn't remember how to refer to myself in first person. ^-^;;) 

()()()()() 

Sacrifice of Shadows 

Chapter 13 -- Watashi wa... 

The doorbell rang, awakening Ryou from his exhausted nap. He lay still, expecting his dad to get it. When the bell rang again, more insistantly, he remembered that his father was at work and heaved himself out of bed with a sigh. He trudged downstairs and pulled open the door, keeping his face down and his expression bored. "May I help you?" 

"Delivery for Ryou Bakura." 

The voice sounded a bit familiar, but Ryou didn't notice, and wouldn't have cared if he did. "That's me." He held out his hands, and the package was placed into them. He turned and was ready to close the door again when the delivery man cleared his throat. 

"I was told to have you open it sir. It's fragile, and my supiriors wanted to be sure nothing was broken." 

Ryou sighed and put the package down next to the door, going into the kitchen for a knife. He slit the strings, all the while trying to figure out who would be sending him something. It was too early for Christmas, and his birthday wasn't until March. His dad's birthday wasn't until June, and Bakura's was in August- 

"Shimatte!!" Ryou cursed himself for getting distracted as he sucked on his cut finger. 

"Are you all right?" 

Ryou waved the delivery man off, and quickly healed the minor cut. "I'm fine." He pulled the top off the package and reached inside the nest of tissue paper. He froze and his mouth dropped open in shock when his touch encounted smooth metal. The box and tissue paper wrapping fell from his trembling hands as he cradled the Millenium Ring to his chest. Words such as 'fake', 'theif' and 'how the hell?' bounced through his mind. 

The delivery man stepped forward to rest a hand on Ryou's shoulder. The simple contact sent a shiver of familiarity through Ryou's system, and his eyes widened. "But, but you're-" 

The man before him smiled. "Watashi wa Bakura. Wanna be friends?" 

~*Owari*~

watashi wa = 'my name is-' 

()()()()() 

Mai: *snags Amazon-SJ as she runs past* Hey! Authoress! I've got a bone to pick with you! 

Malik: *comes up to stand next to her* Her and me both. 

Mai: *pushes Malik* Shove off blondie! You've had your chance! 

Malik: *grabs for the Rod* Oh yeah? 

Mai: *bears her teeth* Bring it on! 

WSJ: *now free, standing off to the side with her head cocked* SJ think it b*tch-fight now... 

Seto (who's standing nearest her): *bursts out laughing, nearly choking on his punch* Wahha! That's good! Teehee... 

WSJ: *looks annoyed* Trench coat man please get SJ hot water now? 

Seto: *still chuckling, ruffles her lavendar hair, since she's so much shorter then him now* Sorry little authoress. Get the dog to do it for ya'. 

(Okay, so no one's confused, and to set the record straight, here's what I look like. Usually I'm about as tall as Tristan, with long blond hair and grey eyes. When I get splashed with cold water and revert into my cursed Amazon form, I shrink, so I'm about as tall as Yami, and my hair turns lavendar. Somehow, when I get shorter, the extra mass is transferred into my, *cough* bust, which gets bigger.) 

WSJ: *crosses her arms and glares at him* Broody-sama not like to hear you call blond New York-boy that! 

Seto: Yeah well, Brood isn't here. 

Voice from behind him: Oh, I'm not? 

Seto: *spits out his punch* Shit! 

Zutsokaki: *wanders over and leans an elbow against the top of WSJ's head, using her as an arm-rest* Hey squirt. Nice party. 

WSJ: *steam coming out of her ears* Get off of SJ, evil psycopathic man. 

Zutsokaki: *raises an eyebrow* 'Evil psycopathic man'? Well, it's better then Zutso-koi I guess... 

WSJ: *gets an evil gleam in her eyes, grabs Zutsokaki around the legs, and yells at the top of her Amazoness lungs:* AIREN!!!!!!!!!!! 

Zutsokaki: *chokes* Ai-_what_?! 

Everyone in the room who knows the least little bit of Chinese (or is a Ranma 1/2 fan) tips over laughing. WSJ continues to cling to Zutsokaki is a patented Amazon Glomp(tm), and he franticly tries to figure out what she called him. In the midst of the chaos, the door opens, and in walk WSJ's muses and her yami. 

Yami-WSJ: *sweatdrops* What the hell's going on? I jet off to Bermuda for a few weeks and you throw a party _without me?!_

Tea: Nah, this is just the wrap party for SoS. 

Yami-WSJ: *freaks out* _SoS?_ I missed it _all_! Where's that aibou of mine? 

Zutsokaki: *points downward* Here she is. And, coincidentally Yami-SJ, she called me something, and I'm not sure if it's an insult or not. 

Yami-SJ: Hm... Coming from her, it could be anything. What'd she say? 

WSJ: *looks up at her other with big chibi-eyes* Airen! WSJ want evil psycopathic man for airen. 

Yami-SJ: *snorts back laughter* Um... Zutsokaki? 

Zutsokaki: What? 

Yami-SJ: Airen means.... Husband, in Chinese. 

Zutsokaki: *voice goes high-pitched in fear* _WHAT???????_

Brood: *wanders over, having finished lecturing Seto and oogling Joey* Aw... How cute! Can I be Aunty Brood? 

Zutsokaki: No! Absolutely not! I am _not_ and _never will be_ her husband!!! 

WSJ: *looks up at him with puppy-dog eyes* But airen! Amazon law say that any man who lean on Amazon woman's head will be her husband! SJ must follow Amazon law! 

Zutsokaki: *seriously freaking out* Any man who _leans on your head_ has to marry you? Hot water! I need hot water! 

Zutsoaki then proceeds to run through the entire house, trying to find hot water. Thankfully, Elyssa was thoughtful enough to turn off all the pipes, so no matter what fauset Zutsokaki turns on, all he gets is cold water. Finally, he sits down in defeat, and WSJ hops up onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

Zutsokaki: Why me?! WHY ME?!?! *drops his head into his hands* 

WSJ, Brood, and Yami-SJ exchange glances, and then WSJ slides off his lap, dousing herself with the always ready hot thermos that she pulled out of HammerSpace. Together, they lean toward Zutsokaki, who is, amazingly, on the verge of weeping. 

Brood, WSJ, & Yami-SJ: PSYCHE! 

Zutsokaki: *is stunned for a second* AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

**end**

^_~v God bless minna-san! 


End file.
